Transcribed from the 1872 William Hunt and Company edition byDavid Price,
BYTHE
REV. EDWARD HOARE, M.A.
Vicar of Trinity Church, TunbridgeWells,
and Honorary Canon ofCanterbury.
LONDON:
WILLIAM HUNT AND COMPANY,
HOLLES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE;
AND ALDINE CHAMBERS, PATERNOSTERROW.
PRICETHREEPENCE.
BYTHE
REV. EDWARD HOARE, M.A.,
Vicar of Trinity Church, TunbridgeWells,
and Honorary Canon ofCanterbury.
Among the many wise sayings ofPaschal there is one that deserves our most attentive study:viz., that few heresies have their origin in simple error, butthat all that have ever attained to power have originated in theexaggeration of truth. Without that element of truth therewould be no power in the error. This principle is inperfect harmony with all we see around us. In everythingthere are certain proportions, and nothing can compensate fortheir loss.
In art the painter may mix his colours in the most perfectcombination; he may bring out each feature with all the power ofa Rembrandt, but if the head is twice too large for the body, orthe nose for the face, his beautiful painting becomes nothingbetter than a ridiculous caricature.
p. 4In natureGod has fitted the parts of each tree in beautifulproportion. Each part—the root, the stem, the branch,the leaf,—does its work in perfect harmony. And manya beautiful tree bears nothing, simply because an ignorantgardener, by what he calls pruning, has disturbed the proportionsof its parts.
In music it is the same, and Shakespeare knew it when hewrote,
“Howsour sweet music is
When time is broke, and no proportion kept.”
But there is no illustration more perfect than that oflight. In pure white light there are many parts, but all inperfect harmony. Let any one colour be left out, or itsstrength be diminished, and the pure white is seen no more. If we wish for purity in light we must have the whole spectrum,and have it just as God has given it. Let man disturb it inany way whatever, let him keep back any colour, because it doesnot suit his taste, or isolate any other colour, because for ithe feels a special preference, and the result will be that hewill no longer look on the pure bright light of heaven. Heneed not introduce any new element; all that he has to do is tokeep back a part and to disturb the proportion, and by thatsimple and easy process he can substitute a colour p. 5of his owndevising for the pure brightness of the sunbeam.
I believe it to be just