ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 323 



■cabin, from the rou<;h to the hewn log house, from tlie log house to 

 the regular frame structure, from the frame building which meets only 

 the wants of utility to the modern Queen Anne house in Avhich orna- 

 ment forms the chief element, is the order of progress. 



We might examine the orick structure and we can trace the pro- 

 gress from the sun dried material to the building of those palaces which 

 are now being excavated and brought to light upon the plains of 

 Western Asia. The walls of those buildings were not frescoed but 

 were of a substance like Alabaster upon which were sculptured figures 

 of their deities. Even they looked from utility towards the esthetic. 

 Let us look at articles of domestic manufacture. The savage uses skins 

 for clothing. These were to them useful, but became more and more 

 useful as they were decorated with paint or beads and made more 

 beautiful. Turning aside from that which nature presents, as scarcity 

 forces them to use something else for their protection, we find them 

 using various resources of nature as hemp, coacoanut fiber, weeds, 

 with still the same idea of utility. Further along we find the silk and 

 the embroidery of the Chinese. The Chinaman has gone beyond the 

 phase of utility and is appealing to the esthetic in human life. The 

 law is, from utility to the esthetic when we find leisure for the pursuit 

 of the higher demands of our nature. In China we look upon another 

 phase of nature in which utility is the controling element. The China- 

 man is limited in the number of wives he has, by the number which he 

 can purchase. The wife plowing with a forked stick is a thing of 

 •utility. One wife is as much as we can afford, and that wife is sup- 

 posed to be not only the most useful but also the most ornamental of 

 objects. There is a stage in which we pass beyond the inspiration of 

 utility to that higher inspiration which comes from love of the beautiful. 



Let us next look at the development of monumental art, at the dis- 

 position which we seem to possess by nature to remember the dead. 

 Prom the simple earth mound which covers the grave of the departed 

 simply to remind us of the one who lies there; the next step is to the 

 rough, unhewn grave stone. In this the element of utility is the first 

 inspiration, Let us follow it still further and we reach the time when 

 the stone is polished and the simple mark is replaced by an inscription 

 commemorative of the virtues of the dead. Still further the monu- 

 ment becomes a thing of beauty, like the statue of " Liberty enlighten- 

 ing the world," whose light future generations shall see as they sail 

 into the harbor of i^ew York when we are cold in death. 



Turning aside from art, let us look at nature and behold with its 

 Tiolets spread out before us how she combines the useful with the 



