Stop That Pendulum!

“The whole curse of the last century has been what is called the Swing of the Pendulum; that is, the idea that Man must go alternately from one extreme to the other. It is a shameful and even shocking fancy; it is the denial of the whole dignity of mankind. When Man is alive he stands still. It is only when he is dead that he swings. But whenever one meets modern thinkers (as one often does) progressing towards a madhouse, one always finds, on inquiry, that they have just had a splendid escape from another madhouse...''

- G.K. Chesterton

I saw this quote posted on Facebook last night. The timing struck me, perhaps especially since we’d just spent a couple of days spent in doctors’ offices (cardiology and neurology).   I went scuttling for an OLD book, something tried-and-true and therapeutic that was not (*gasp*) faddishly contemporary or (*groan*) manipulatively technological.  I was in the mood to be calmed and settled down – no madhouses, please.  No shoulds or oughts, no self-help manuals or schemes, no trite witticisms or YouTube mini-lectures. 

A thick old anthology winked at me from the bookshelf, one leftover from my college days.  I pulled it down, opened it randomly, and pored over the excerpt before me on page 1935 (no kidding – this is one very large book).

As I entertained the words on the page, the figurative pendulum wound down and down, and eventually stopped; its round gold disc stood still and invited me to pause from ruminating about medical issues and contemplate higher things.   So, I did, and the concerns of the day softened as I sat in the wicker chair with my book open:

“A painter (or writer) possesses grace only as a gift…He himself does not know whether he possesses it, or in what degree, or how he communicates it to his works.  It surprises the spectator, who feels its effect without penetrating to its true cause…It can be defined as that which pleases and gains the heart without passing through the judgment.

“Grace and beauty are two different things; beauty pleases only by rules, and grace pleases without rules.  The beautiful is not always graceful, and the graceful is not always beautiful.  But grace joined to beauty is the height of perfection.”

- from L’Idee de Peintre Parfait, 1699