I 



THE HOME BEAUTIFUL 55 



visitors approached — for all were welcome in her garden, where there 

 were no high fences to obstruct the view — she was willing, nay anxious, 

 to share her treasures with them. The beauty of the flowers was re- 

 flected in her face. As she picked her bouquets and distributed them 

 here and there, the generossity and prodigality of the plants and flowers 

 caught response in her actions. The very personality of this dear old 

 creature was a counterpart of the loveliness, sweetness and getnerosity 

 of that old garden. Through my life, reaching from my boyhood, some 

 of the closest personal friends I have had have been tree, plant and 

 flower lovers. Not a superficial love, but what one likes to term what 

 you gentlemen understand when T say a passionate love of the beautiful. 



The woodland, the plant, the flowers, the rocks, have furnished 

 the avenue down which have traveled some of the sweetest singers 

 of all times. As we reflect upon the suggestion of the greatest of all 

 teachers, when He said, "Consider the lilies," we are led to believe 

 that He well knew the susceptibility of human nature to the softening 

 and soothing influences of the beautiful in nature. 



Wordsworth, singing in sublime notes the beauties of creation, 

 and responsive to the influence of woodland, lake, flower, ferns, and the 

 beauty sometimes trodden under foot by the thoughtless throng, these 

 to him had language and meaning which caused him to burst forth in 

 lofty response to the loveliness he saw. 



Ruskin, with his eye, nay very soul, trained in all that was beautiful, 

 whose character as one analyzes it seems to have fed upon the flowers 

 scattered up and down his pathway, — his splendid spirit echoed the beauty 

 as he saw it. He was one who could find in the coloring of a bird's wing 

 material for splendid thought and conception. The things that he heard 

 and the things that he saw found echo in the lofty ideals and inspiring 

 words he has left as a legacy to mankind. 



A few years ago it was my pleasure to look down upon the home 

 of Tennyson in the Isle of Wight, an embowered home, a home fit for a 

 poet and the home of a poet. I remember saying, "A man scarce could 

 help writing poetry amidst such surroundings." As we reflect that this, 

 one of the greatest poets of modern times, who with his keen analytical 

 power seemed able to probe to the very core of human nature and one 

 could almost say the Divine, we must come to the conclusion that his 

 character was fed by the world in which he lived. His ability to reach 

 over and forward across the brink, as it were, was enhanced by his 

 response to the things which surrounded him. 



These men may have been able and doubtless would have given 

 voice to splendid ideals and noble tlhought amidst the blackened 

 coal and mining districts of the Old World, yet the fact that they sought 

 beauty, were enthralled by it, became its willing slave, doubly, nay, one 

 can hardly say how much it intensified their individual capacity for sub- 

 lime thought and expression. Thus we do well to lay great stress upon 

 the necessity of educating and providing for the sustenance ofr that part 



