A3 5^ 



LOOKING OVER THE FIELDS 



i.S 



Volume V 



MAY 1912 



Number 1 



YES, THIS BEGINS OUR FIFTH YEAR 



The Naturalist and Beauty. 



The naturalist differs from those 

 who are not naturalists in that he ac- 

 cepts beauty at its intrinsic worth 

 whether the objects that exemplify 

 such beauty be plentiful or rare. Let 

 me illustrate by a concrete example. 



I recently visited one of the largest 

 jewelry and art stores of New York 

 City, a well-known establishment on 

 Fifth Avenue. I had with me some 

 young people. At my request the clerk 

 let me hold in my hand a string of 

 pearls with a diamond for a centerpiece. 

 The price was $60,000. I inquired why 

 any one should pay $60,000 for that 

 small amount of material. The clerk 

 said in surprise, "Because it is so beau- 

 tiful. People will pay enormous sums 

 for ornaments. Pearls and diamonds 

 are more beautiful than anything else 

 in the world." 



"No," I said, "in my opinion they 

 will not pay $60,000 for the beauty, but 

 for the satisfaction of having some- 

 thing that no one else has. In the 

 markets of the world the price of such 

 things has been gradually forced up be- 

 cause wealth has increased, and the 

 supply has become limited either nat- 

 urally or by the trade. The beauty 

 only in this ornament is not worth $60,- 



000, which is its price. As mere beauty 

 it is not worth six cents." 



The clerk indignantly reprimanded 

 me for forgetting in whose store I was. 

 "These, sir," he added emphatically, 

 "are the genuine article. You may go 

 'down town' and buy close imitations 

 at a price somewhere near your six 

 cents, but these are genuine and are 

 worth $60,000 because they are so 

 beautiful." 



Then I explained to the young peo- 

 ple and I explain to you that what I 

 had in mind was not a question as to 

 the so-called genuineness, though one 

 may question whether the artificial 

 pearls and diamonds are not practically 

 worth as much on the score of beauty. 

 If the imitation is so perfect that only 

 comparatively few experts can distin- 

 guish the false from the true, the beau- 

 ty of the one must be practically as 

 great as that of the other. 



But what I intended to do was to im- 

 press upon the young' people the fact 

 that we too frequently see beauty 

 through the eyes of dollars, or rarity, 

 or exclusiveness, or selfishness, or 

 whatever else you may care to call it. 

 To prove that point I submit this argu- 

 ment. Suppose we could make dia- 

 monds and pearls as plentiful as the 



Copyright 1912 by The Agassiz Association, Arcadia: Sound Beach, Conn. 



