Page:Through the torii (IA throughtorii00noguiala).pdf/196

 one is interested in ugliness is ironical; the truth is that he sees clearly a beauty in it, that beauty that leads you to peace, certainty, and eternity. It is quite a modern note to say that it is perfectly a shame to remain ugly, and we do not see the reason why we cannot turn beautiful; but the ugliness is far nearer to truth. This is the life of confession; indeed, the real life only begins when you see your real self itself. And not the beauty but the ugliness knows better about its own worth. It is true that beauty is false, or more apt to be false; we see more ugliness in beauty than beauty in ugliness, It is not my new discovery, but it is the fact old like life and the world. And it seems to me that we are slowly but steadily approaching the day when justice shall be done for anything. It is not too much to say that our life finds a solid support or life’s nourishment in the beauty that is distilled through ugliness; ugliness is not ugliness after all. Rh