Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2175

Words of Heath through the bathroom door, while shaving, at 312 Halesworth Street, Santa Ana, California, the home of Mrs. F. N. Manning, his hostess in Southern California. Spencer MacCallum recorded Heath’s words. Some later amendments in pencil by Heath.

The only absolute is beauty. The Good, is only how you feel about it. The Good for you is what feels good to you, and for the other fellow, what you feel is good for him. Beauty is spontaneous — it does not have to be enforced. The only force that enforces the Good is brute force. Truth is a little higher, but not much. For there are many kinds of Truth, both good and bad. To say merely that something is true – and to praise it for that — is to lack discrimination.

     Goodness is the virtue of slaves, Truth the color of the chameleon. But Beauty is as the song of the lark and the nightingale. It is the source of inspiration. It cometh from above, and never sets one man above or below another — as do Goodness, and Truth. Without it, men would be forever as worms or slaves.

/Heath edited the last four lines as follows:/

It cometh from above; it lends no sanction to set one man above or below another — as do Goodness and Truth; only in its thralldom are men truly free; without it they would be forever as worms and as slaves.