Q. : By believing in beauty can one awaken it in another? If a child does not show a desire for beauty, can one teach the beauty? Or can beauty not be taught?

A. : If a child does not show an inclination toward beauty, it is only  that something is closed in him.  It does not mean that the beauty is missing there–in no soul, however wicked or stupid it might seem: the beauty is still hidden there.  And it is our trust and confidence in the greatness of the soul which will help us to draw out that beauty; in some sooner and some later, but some day that which is hidden must come out.  Only the difficulty is for everyone to have patience; we have not patience enough, that is the difficulty.  The lack of beauty in some people strikes us so hard that we lose our patience and become pessimistic and try to run away from them.  In doing so we encourage them to become still worse.  But if we had the patience to bear it, to endure it, and trust that in every soul there is a goodness and a beauty somewhere hidden, with patience we can explore it and dig it out; some day or other we shall succeed.

It is the opening of the heart to every soul, whatever be the state of evolution, that alone will inspire that heart with beauty,
and by opening that beauty, one will find it coming to life.

The belief in the human soul brings one to the belief in God.  If once one believes that God is the Father, the fatherhood teaches us that every child has the heritage of the father. It is not only a philosophy, it is a religion, a moral; and by trusting in the divine beauty in every person, we at the same time develop that beauty in ourselves automatically, because we have that belief. It shall not develop when one thinks: I have that beauty but another person has not got it.  So many persons do this, thinking, ‘I have got it,’ instead of forgetting oneself and thinking that it could be found one day in the other, if only we had patience to wait.  As soon as one thinks, ‘Here is someone who is lacking beauty; away, away from him! He has not got what I have,’ one shows a pride and one locks the door which otherwise could have been kept open for one to toil and work.  And it is a weakness to turn our backs to anyone who might seem lacking that beauty which we expect. It is the opening of the heart to every soul, whatever be the state of evolution, that alone will inspire that heart with beauty, and by opening that beauty, one will find it coming to life.