morning in the garden

My favourite time to wander in the garden is in the early morning when the sun's slanted rays illuminate the petals and the night's raindrops still linger.

Intrinsic Value

Beauty breaks through not only at a few highly organized points, it breaks through almost everywhere. Even the minutes things reveal it as well as do the sublimest things, like the stars.

Whatever one sees through the microscope, a bit of mould, for example, is charged with beauty. Everything from a dewdrop to Mount Shasta is the bearer of beauty.

And yet beauty has no function, no utility. Its value is intrinsic, not extrinsic. It is its own excuse for being. It greases no wheels, it bakes no puddings. It is a gift of sheer grace, a gratuitous largesse. It must imply behind things a Spirit that enjoys beauty for its own sake and that floods the world everywhere with it. Wherever it can break through, it does break through, and our joy in it shows that we are in some sense kindred to the giver and revealer of it.

Rufus M. Jones