Introductory Comments

The texts selected have been taken out of context, not perversely, but rather for the intentions and scope of the project. This is not to say that their meanings have been compromised. These excerpts are like the branches, broken and unbroken, of a deciduous tree in winter, as a careful and serious reading will show. The omissions must not be taken as a slight or a deception but rather as an invitation to discover and explore at leisure the full texts for a more profound immersion into the notion of beauty and into the qualities of beautiful things. While the texts often complement one another, they sometimes seem contrary or contradictory. What becomes evident is that the contrariety and contradiction are not subsumed in a higher synthesis but point to a pattern of meaning: differences are not obliterated in a false unity nor similarities erased by exaggerated differences. Neither dogmatism nor relativism is intended by the selection of texts. Translators' names appear at the end of citations.