Unit Three
Beauty Is Meaningless
　　A young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand or to express the emotion that it rouses in him, concludes that it must be the gateway¹ to a world that lies beyond. It is difficult for any of us in moments of intense aesthetic² experience to resist the suggestion that we are catching³ a glimpse of a light that shines down to us from a different realm of existence, different and, because the experience is intensely moving, in some wqy higher. And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet they do convey a hint of beauty and serenity⁴ greater than we have known or imagined. Greater too than we can describe, for language, which was invented to convey the meanings of this world, cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.
　　That all great art has this power of suggesting a world beyond is undeniable. In some moods, Nature shares it. There is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward to a bluer, no sunset so beautiful that it does not waken the vision of a greater beauty, a wision which passes before it is fully⁵ glimpsed, and in passing leaves an indefinable linging and regret. But, if this world is not merely a bad joke, life a vulgar flare⁶ amid the cool radiance of the stars, and existence an empty laugh braying⁸ across the mysteries, if these intimations of a something behind and beyond are not evil humour born of indigestion, or whimsies⁹ sent by the devil to mock and madden us , if, in a word, beauty means something, yet we must not seek to interpret the meaning. If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter it, nor should we seek to invest with significance that which we cannot grasp. Beauty in terms of our human meanings is meaningless.

intense a. 1.强烈的,剧烈的,紧张的 2.认真的,专注的 3.热情的,热切的
intensify¹⁰ v. (使)增强,(使)加剧

aesthetic a. 1.美学的,审美的 2.悦目的,雅致的