Finally, the joy of beauty tends to turn us outward. Iris Murdoch described attention to the real—say, watching a kestrel—as an “unselfing” that loosens ego and clears vision (The Sovereignty of Good, 1970). Schiller’s Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795) likewise argues that beauty harmonizes our sensuous and rational drives, refining character. Even Ruskin, insisting that art carries moral stakes, tied seeing well to living well. Through this ethical lens, Keats’s line broadens: beauty’s enduring joy is not mere pleasure but a training of perception, a gentle schooling in care. As we keep returning, we become a little more worthy of what we behold. [...]
