The human soul is hungry for beauty; we seek it everywhere in landscape, music, art, clothes, furniture, gardening, companionship, love, religion, and in ourselves. When we experience the Beautiful, there is a wonderful sense of homecoming; we feel fully alive. Beauty is the true priestess of individuation. But our times are dominated by anxiety and by what is vulgar, coarse, and artificial. Were Beauty to awaken in the fields of politics, religion, planning, discourse, and seeing, our world would heal and fresh wells of hope would refresh us. Read by John O’Donohue, On Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, the Irish poet and philosopher invites us to remember and to awaken the Beautiful; it is always secretly there, awaiting our attention and reverence. Also available in paperback, $18.50