34 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



They are not so ridiculous as some people lightly deem ; that 

 evil comes from matter is a notion deriving specious support 

 in a world where so much misery is material and so much sin 

 is animal. Yet the dualistic systems are self-contradictory 

 and irrational ; and to Bay that matter is evil in itself is to 

 deny that God created it. And here beauty comes in to give 

 light and courage. 



For what is all this loveliness, purifying and exalting us by 

 its very presence, sending a holy calm to restless hearts and 

 a happy light to shadowed minds,— what is it but the aspect 

 of combinations of matter? Carbon, oxygen, potassium 

 .and the like, that is what the lilies are to a mere physiologist. 

 The carrion in the ditch and the roses in the hedge are by 

 chemical tests about the same. That portion of earth which 

 is dull, depressing, disgusting, is made of the same elements 

 •as is all earth's blossoming splendor. This unspiritual 

 matter can take shapes in which it becomes a blessed min- 

 istrant to our souls. And what does that mean but that 

 beauty is God's sacramental glorifying of matter, His 

 taking some of the common bread and wine and endowing 

 them with a spiritual purpose and potency? 



All is not beautiful, or we should not experience our 

 educating probation ; but enough is given to sustain and 

 inspire. 



Robert Browning, affectionately praising a quiet landscape 

 in Normandy, declares : 



If we have souls, kuow how to see aud use, 

 One place performs like auy other place 

 The proper purpose every place on earth 

 Was framed to furnish man with; serves alike 

 To give him note that through the place he sees 

 A place is signified he never saw 

 But if he lack not soul may learn to know. 



But this is because, as Browning immediately claims, 

 there is " a beauty buried everywhere. ' ' The mystic teach- 

 ing of nature, its voice to man's spirit, is in its beauty. For 

 the brute the powers and utilities whereby he lives his animal 



