Beauty does not lie in the individual elements, but in the harmonious proportion of the parts, in the proportion of one finger in relation to another, of all the fingers to the whole hand, of the rest of the hand to the wrist, of this last to the forearm, of the forearm to the whole arm, and finally of all the parts to all the others, as is written in the Canon of Policlitus. (查看原文)
所有生的艺术。在英格兰都被他们变成了死的艺术。
沙漏因为它简单的技术而被蔑视。
就像农夫的技术。以及
那把水送上水槽的水车，被火烧毁：
因为它的技术，就像牧羊人的技术。
取而代之的是，发明了复杂的轮子，无轮而转：
好迷惑青年，好将英格兰的劳力
绑缚在无限永恒的日夜，让他们一小时又一小时
辛苦劳作磋磨铜和钢！
令他们不知其用，那样他们就可能会
为了微薄糊口的面包，把智慧的时日消磨在悲惨的苦役里：
在无知中看着那小小一块，以为那就是人生的一切，
把它叫做明证吧：对生命所有简单的规则视而不见。
And all the Arts of Life. they changd into the Arts of Death in Albion.
The hour-glass contemnd because its simple workmanship.
Was like the workmanship of the plowman, & the water wheel,
That raises water into cisterns: broken & burnd with fire:
Because its workmanship. was like the workmanship of the shepherd.
And in their stead, intricate wheels invented, wheel without wheel:
To perplex youth in their outgoings, & to bind to labours in Albion
Of day & night the myriads of eternity that they may grind
And polish brass & iron hour after hour labo... (查看原文)
1. 美的辩证法
18世纪向有理性世纪之称，整体连贯，冷静超脱。然而如此形象，连同现代品位所得于当时绘画与音乐的感知，断然在误导人。斯坦利-库布里克（Stanley Kubrick）的电影《乱世儿女》（Barry Lyndon）里，启蒙运动时代僵冷而疏远的外表底下，奔流着一股不受羁制的、暴烈的骚乱激情伏流，那个世界的男女既残酷，亦文雅。库布里克以一座古典帕拉底欧式结构的谷仓背景，演出闻所未闻的父子决斗暴力。18世纪是卢梭、康德与萨德侯爵（Marquis de Sade）的世纪，甜美人生（douceur de vivre）与断头台的世纪，活力爆发的巴洛克极盛期与洛可可、新古典主义美学蓬勃的世纪，思考并呈现这么一个世纪，自当如是，方近真实。 (查看原文)
For the Pythagorean Tradition, the soul and body of man are subject to the same laws that govern musical phenomena, and those same proportions are to be found in the cosmic harmony in such a way that both micro and macrocosm appear bound by a single rule that is at once mathematical and aesthetic. This rule is manifested in the music of the spheres: according to Pythagoras, this was the musical scale produced by the planets, each of which, in rotating around the motionless world, produces a sound whose pitch depends on the distance of the planet from the earth and consequently, on the speed at which the planet in question is moving. The system thus emits the sweetest music, but one that we cannot hear owing to the inadequacy of our senses. (查看原文)
In Baroque painting, objects are struck by the light, and the play of volumes gives rise to bright and dark areas. But in Medieval illumination the light seems to radiate out from the objects. They are luminous in themselves. (查看原文)
