The Perfection of Beauty

Too often the consideration of beauty in our ever-corrupt culture is being even more false. The ancient concept of beauty focused upon, what we today would call abstract or 'detached' notions such as proportionality or harmony. To the modern mind this approach is odd in the extreme.
 For all the attention that beauty receives in the media and various magazines, in fact it can rightly be said to be an obsession for us. However, it is not appreciated enough. Nor is it truly understood.
 It is a common feature of our approach to highlight a particular aspect of a person and from this chosen delight to dwell upon it without penetrating any further. It is from this pernicious error that lust, irrationality and disorder derives. It is entirely licit to be attracted by a feature, whether it belong to the body or the personality (a certain 'quirk' perhaps) yet to be a legitimate and true choice it must allow us to access further. Rather, we must allow ourselves to be taken beyond what first attracts us. Yet, whether we allow ourselves this journey depends in great measure on the intention for the pursuit, the 'what' we are searching for. These principles can either allow us to experience the truth or, unfortunately be blocked further and held in a mortal grasp. On a theoretical level, our conception may be pure but so often hic et nunc, based on further considerations, we can easily be distracted and seeking for a quick release or refuge. The intellect must judge upon what is presented to it at a particular moment, not always in an objective fashion and consider what is better at the present moment.  An approach of the quick fix is not an acceptable route to take. However, it is the common way of fallen man.
 The remedy is to consider the totality of the person and their purpose. By this I do not mean reflexion based upon sentimentality, but by a sober consideration of wisdom, which concerns things in their causes. Without holding a true belief of first principles or the destiny of the human person, it is all too easy to be suffocated by the various demands and passions of the moment.
 It may be stated however that what we find may offer us an opportunity to come to know the truth of beauty by beholding it on some occasion. It may proceed from this window (a glimpse into the divine perfections) that we not only find the other which has at first attracted us, but ourselves as well.