STATK IKiUlMCUI/niRAI, SOOIKTY. 145 



lurwaril again lo conlribulc some thouglUs wliich iiui\- at least serve as the 

 annual reminder to the Society of the existence of such a department of 

 your field of inquiry. 



It is a most noticeable feature of the times that the art spirit is on 

 the increase among our countrymen. The multiplication of art galleries, 

 the enlarged proportion of the fine art departments in our annual fairs 

 and expositions, the introduction of art instruction into the public 

 schools, the floods of chromos and ])ictures of all sorts in the market and 

 in our homes, the appearance of so man\- new names among our artists, 

 and the increased taste for the beautiful shown everywhere — in houses, 

 carriages, dress, ornaments, and even in our implements of industry, all 

 tell with an unmistakable emphasis that the era of art life is beginning for 

 us as a nation. The hard, stern utilitarianism which was a virtue in our 

 pioneer life, when nothing but the most rugged industry, bravely per- 

 sisted in, against all temptations, could serve our need, has begun to yield 

 to the softer and finer, if not nobler feeling of love for the grace- 

 ful, the beautiful and the agreeable. 1-et me not be misunderstood as 

 undervaluing the brave old spirit of manly independence, which, seeing 

 its work before it, bent itself to its task with a stalwart purpose to be 

 content with its lot, and treating with honest indignation and contempt 

 the disposition to dress with an unbecoming finery, and to give to 

 untimely refinements the l:»rain power and hand power which were required 

 to meet the grander wants of life. When serried ranks move over the 

 battle-field, and charging columns rush to the terrible encounter, it is the 

 music of cannon and musketry, and not of flutes and vioHns, which 

 cheers the men. So when an earnest people are engaged in a work such 

 as fell upon the pioneers of the land, there is but little time or taste for 

 the delights of beautiful things. Bread for the stomach, money to meet 

 the tax collector, schooling for the children, and religion for the soul, 

 were the grand aims of life. 



But the time was sure to come when nature in man would reassert its 

 neglected attributes, and demand for all its fundamental needs. And one 

 of these needs is that of gratification of the taste for the beautiful and the 

 agreeable. This taste is as essential an attribute of the human soul as is 

 the desire for knowledge, the conscience for truth or the appetite for food. 

 Even in our food we seek as much for agreeable savors as for its nourishing 

 power; and in our dress, pleasant colors and fashionable styles areas 

 much prized as comforting warmth or durability of fabric. 



It is not needful to undertake any comparison of natural needs, or to 

 defend the utility of one at the expense of another. As the eye can not 

 say to the hand, " I have no need of you," so one part of the complex 

 passional nature of man can not assert any essential superiority of right 

 or utility over another. The hunger of the stomach may be the more 

 pressing, but the hunger of the heart is equally human, and perhaps nearer 

 the angelic and divine. 



I know full well that none of this argument is needed to justify before 

 this Society the ornamentation of our grounds, or even landscape gar- 

 denmg on a grander scale; but my essay, like your labors, is meant in part 

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