32 MISSOURr BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



my argument remains undisturbed. For the beautiful is 

 the beautiful, and it is only beautiful to eyes which send 

 their report to a soul. 



No validity can be allowed to the assertion sometimes set 

 up to break the force of this argument, the assertion that 

 beauty is unreal and supposititious, a delusion due to our 

 fondness for the familiar or our fancy for the strange. 

 The facts are too many and too clear the other way. 



That a savage tramples on blossoms, or a woman of 

 society follows some ugly mode, or the writers on {esthetics 

 differ as to certain points, cannot counterbalance the per- 

 manent and enthusiastic delight in beauty shown by all the 

 noblest human beings, and their general agreement as to 

 where beauty is displayed. One might as well argue the 

 non-existence of sight or reason, because there are blind 

 and idiotic, as to deny beauty because of some who never 

 appreciate it. 



The only valid explanation of the belief in beauty is that 

 beauty really exists. But the acknowledgment of the 

 beautiful is logically the confession of God. And it is the 

 confession of a God who is much more than a Primum 

 Mobile, a First Cause. The great picture gallery of the 

 universe is the revelation of a Person, of a Mind willing to 

 be known by other minds. The symmetry, the grace, the 

 glory of nature are absurd, are impossible, are vot, except 

 as symbols placed by God upon His universe to express 

 Himself to all contemplating spirits. The true reason of 

 the lilies of the field is that we may consider them, may 

 behold in their bright raiment the thought of God, may 

 infer from them the perfection and the splendor which 

 must by His intent belong to human life. 



Consider the lilies, for it is they who preach this sermon 

 most articulately. There is, indeed, much loveliness else- 

 where, in clouds and snow, in gems and shells and plumage, 

 in slopes of hillside and curving of waves, but nowhere 

 else is beauty so common, so conspicuous and so independ- 

 ent, so plainly a divine message. 



