Porque procura o olhar o belo? Porquê esta procura incessante? Porquê esta necessidade de saciar os sentidos? Inconscientemente, sabêmo-lo. Conscientemente, fazêmo-lo através da criação artística. Para voltar às questões. Como forma de resposta.


The Pursuit of Beauty

Man's soul is drawn by beauty, even as the moth
       By flame, the cloud by mountains, or as the sea,
       Roaming around earth's shore incessantly,
       Ebbs with the moon and surges with her growth;
And as the moth singes her wings in fire,
       As clouds upon the hillsides melt in rain,
       As tides with change unceasing wax and wane,
       Nor in the moon's white kisses quell desire;
So the soul, drawn by beauty, nothing loth,
       Burns her bright wings with rapture that is pain,
       Faints and dissolves or e're her goal she gain,
Flies and pursues that unclasped deity,
       Fretful, forestalled, blown into foam and froth,
       Following and foiled, even as I follow Thee!

John Addington Symonds, in Animi Figura (1882)