WINTER MEETING. . 331 



planting them to beautify. The only thought of too many of us is the 

 useful, and that alone, and it is a grand mistake. We need at all times 

 to unite the two and keep them in close union in order to get the 

 most satisfaction out of this life. 



The home is useful, but useful only as we make it perfect, and we 

 cannot make it perfect unless we make it beautiful. Perfection is only 

 reached by the close union of the two. The home is beautiful and yet 

 not less useful because it is beautiful, when we have the landscape, 

 the grass plots, the shrubs, the flower beds, the shade trees, the ever- 

 greens, all nicely blended for use and beauty. 



One-half of our lives is a waste if we do not unite these two in all 

 our work ; one is as necessary as the other to the full development of 

 manhood and womanhood, and to a full appreciation of life and its du- 

 ties. ''All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy " is still true, and 

 the opposite is also true. 



This is simply another way of putting the subject of this paper. 

 All work makes a drudge, all utility makes dull feelings, slow appre- 

 ciation, weak sentiments — a drudge also. 



We want something higher and better, and so we look to the 

 beautiful. It is only by the union of the two that the perfect devel- 

 opment of character is shown. 



Let us look over our own work in the same light : Did you ever 

 go into an orchard when every tree was perfect in form and symmetry, 

 and have it do your heart good to just see the trees, to look at them 

 in their beauty "? When, therefore, behind all this there is the fact of 

 value in their products, then the appreciation of mind and body is tilled 

 to its satisfaction. So, in the beautiful yard and surroundings, it does 

 the mind good to dwell on its grand trees, lovely lawn, handsome 

 building, and all. Add to this, therefore, the fact of the utility it can 

 all be put to, and you have the acme of perfection. 



I plead, therefore, in this race for the useful, we neglect not the 

 thought of the beautiful, as the one should go hand in hand with the 

 other. 



Let us not fail to use the useful and to beautify the beautiful if we 

 'want the most perfect life we are capable of enjoying. 



The following extracts taken from a lecture of David Swing: 



The beautiful comes first io the order of nature. Many of our young persons 

 suppose that the beautiful is the culmination of life ; but just the opposite is true. 

 The useful is the culmination of human thought and human effort. The child in 

 his cradle will reach out after the decoration, after the boquet of flowers, or a bril- 

 liant ribbon. The savages in the west are all ornamenting themselves, but they 

 Are not seeking nor finding the paths of utility. 



