Id Quod Visum Placet: “That which pleases when seen.” The simplicity of St. Thomas’s definition of beauty is bewildering, embarrassing; and the modern mind which cares so much for aesthetics is likely to be shocked to find that beauty, from which, for some at least, the remnants of all absolute values seem to hang, is dismissed in four ordinary, even commonplace words. The Thomist who seeks to show that this treatment of beauty is neither contemptuous nor insignificant is in danger of appearing to found a complex system of aesthetics on a base incapable of supporting anything of the sort; therefore of failing to convince. And it will probably be admitted that the phrase considered in itself seems almost to give carte blanche to the Thomist aesthetician. Its implications are immensely wide, but if a more acute examination of them is likely to reveal unexpected precisions it becomes a duty to make it.

What is the nature of Man—“Quid est homo? … Constituisti eum super omnia opera manuum tuarum.” In what is this superiority? “I have said you are gods.” In what way are men as gods? What do we know of God? Credo in Deum … creatorem coeli et terrae. Creatorem—what does create mean? The Shorter Oxford Dictionary says: to bring into being; to cause to exist; to form out of nothing; to originate.

Now the existence of anything is dependent upon four causes. Take for example this table, (I) There is something that makes tables tables and not candlesticks; this kind of thing, not another kind. But, further, as an individual thing: this particular table and not that; a table like this one and not like that one—what makes tables tables, and this particular table this particular shape is the formal cause and without that cause this table would not exist.

Love of learning, or learning itself? Culture, or the acquisition of specialized knowledge? This is the great problem which faces every university in the modern age. Some, indeed, claim to have solved it to their own satisfaction. Others are still grappling with it.

The problem has been created by the passage of time and the opening up of fresh fields of thought and knowledge. Applying equally to both the old and the new worlds, it is of universal importance, inasmuch that on the solution of it depends the future, not merely of our educational systems, but of our civilization itself.

The university was essentially an invention of the Middle Ages, existing for one definite purpose. First and foremost it was a cultural institution; the acquisition of mere knowledge, as such, was of secondary and almost negligible importance.

In the programme of “The Field is Won,” the play recently performed in honour of our new English Saints, the mime is referred to as “a means of education.” Although the phrase was inserted to appease the taxer of entertainments (thus saving many pounds to the producer) it is also true if, by education, we mean the drawing out of what is there and not the hammering in of what is not already present in the child’s being. Mime is the art of sign language, a language which existed even before the Tower of Babel and must last as long as man has the power of movement and sense of sight. It is used by Almighty God and is the daily language of His Church. It is also the daily language of policemen, publicans, soldiers, schoolmasters and others who command or serve.

It is difficult to write about Fra Angelico without rhapsodizing. “He cannot be praised too much”: the beauties of his pictures “baffle description”: “his art was not only inborn and inspired but also exercised with singular care, ability and judgment.” “He perfected the mystic poetry of art.” These and suchlike phrases taken haphazard from sketches of his life, can be found in almost any book that speaks of him. One is almost tempted at the outset to shirk the effort of analysis with a Chaucerian “There is na more to say,” for at the best words are inadequate expressions of the thoughts and emotions inspired by such a painter. Yet perhaps one can be forgiven for joining in the chorus of his praise by judging him from a somewhat unusual angle.