220 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



acted on by the atmosphere without hindering the circulation of the air 

 or liability to injury by wind and storm. For this purpose a simple disk 

 hung on a pliant stem is the easiest made, and as good a form as any. Are 

 all leaves made that way? How much of the labor wo would have to 

 expend to clothe the earth as it is with plants, would be saved if we would 

 make all trees and plants alike so far as form is concerned. And doesn't 

 the extra labor necessary to give them the varied and beautiful forms 

 they wear indicate that their maker cared for the beautiful? Was not 

 the beauty of the lily, exceeding that of Solomon in all his glory, cited 

 in proof that God cared for it? Can we look at God's work anywhere 

 and escape the conviction that he loves beauty? There is not a mother 

 here but has seen her baby smilingly stretch out its hand for the bright 

 ribbon at her throat. Was there ever a child that was not pleased with a 

 bright flower? But how often the beauty-loving child grows up into a 

 man who cares nothing for beauty, who thinks any time spent for the 

 sake of beauty is time wasted! 



Why should this be? Is it not clear that it is the result of want of 

 exercise of the faculty of seeing and enjoying beauty? We are told that 

 were a man of the highest intellect shut up so as to have absolutely no 

 intercourse with his fellow-men, and no chance for the exercise of his 

 mental powers, it would be but a short time before he would become 

 insane. Is it strange, then, that a child growing up and never hearing 

 beauty referred to, with no opportunity to express and develop his love 

 for it, should lose that love, should become a man to whom 



"A primrose by the river's brim 

 A yellow primrose was to him, 

 And it was nothing more"? 



But you say that there are no flxed principles nor rules of beauty; that 

 it is a matter of taste and not of education. The belle in Africa bores a 

 hole in her nose from which she dangles her ornaments, and covering 

 her neck and breast, for modesty's sake, dances with bare arms and legs 

 and body in the sunshine, proud to be so beautifully dressed. The belle 

 of Adrian bores holes in her ears from which she dangles her ornaments, 

 and covering her body all but her neck and breast, for modesty's sake, 

 dances beneath the electric light satisfied that she is dressed so as to 

 show her beauty to the best advantage. Everywhere men make things 

 which they think are beautiful, but which others look upon as hideous. 

 But does this want of unity of opinion as to what is beautiful prove that 

 there is no such thing as absolute beauty? The thugs of India believe 

 it is their duty to rob and murder. In my own city there is a group of 

 people who believe it is the right thing to do what other people consider 

 wrong. Everywhere some men consider certain things wrong that their 

 neighbors consider right. Are we because of this to sing the song of des- 

 pair, and cry out 



"There is no God, there is no good, 

 And faith is a heartless cheat 

 That bares the baeli for the devil's rod. 

 And scatters thorns for the feet"? 



No, the want of an universal conception of what is right does not prove 

 that there is no such thing as absolute right — no need of studying its prin- 



