From the Beautiful to the Sublime: On Schiller's "The Guides of Life"
davidgosselin.substack.com
Two kinds of genius may escort you throughout life. True Goodness falls on him who lets them lead as one. Beauty enlivens and makes brief the winding road; Duty and fate grow lighter with her by your side— She leads with gracefulness and laughter to
A fascinating essay. And one I will have to spend some time thinking about. I am relatively ignorant of Schiller. And this provides an excellent way in for me. Certainly the relationship between the Good and the Beautiful is very important but also very obscure. My chief concern in this area is that the Beautiful not be confused with the cosmetic. As it so often is in this hideous age. Beauty is never skin-deep but always shines out from the very depths of a beautiful object's being. I tend to forget about the Sublime. Or leave it to one side. But in doing so I am obviously mistaken. Partly it is the very age we live in that is responsible for that. Beauty can be only too easily travestied by cosmesis, but the Sublime always maintains its aloof integrity. What is the relationship between the Beautiful and the Sublime? Isn't this what Rilke is dealing with in his Elegies? Is the truly Beautiful always intimately related to the Sublime? Is that what we miss when we come to the merely cosmetic?
A fascinating essay. And one I will have to spend some time thinking about. I am relatively ignorant of Schiller. And this provides an excellent way in for me. Certainly the relationship between the Good and the Beautiful is very important but also very obscure. My chief concern in this area is that the Beautiful not be confused with the cosmetic. As it so often is in this hideous age. Beauty is never skin-deep but always shines out from the very depths of a beautiful object's being. I tend to forget about the Sublime. Or leave it to one side. But in doing so I am obviously mistaken. Partly it is the very age we live in that is responsible for that. Beauty can be only too easily travestied by cosmesis, but the Sublime always maintains its aloof integrity. What is the relationship between the Beautiful and the Sublime? Isn't this what Rilke is dealing with in his Elegies? Is the truly Beautiful always intimately related to the Sublime? Is that what we miss when we come to the merely cosmetic?