a sweet and lively instrument-

The Divine Word. not with harp and lyre, but rather tuning as His instruments, by the Holy Spirit, this whole world and the little world of man, both soul and body, makes music before God. A sweet and lively instrument Our Lord makes of man, and one like Himself: for certainly He is also God's instrument of music, all-harmonious.

- Clement of Alexandria, Protieptikos

spiritual roots and social order

... men today are divided between those who have kept their spiritual roots and lost their contact with the existing order of society, and those who have preserved their social contacts and lost their spiritual roots.

Christopher Dawson

Beauty is momentary in the mind

Beauty is momentary in the mind,
The fitful tracing of a portal,
But in the flesh it is immortal.

Wallace Stevens, 'Peter Quince at the Clavier'