thousand flowers which bloom and shed their fragrance amid untrodden forests and 

 on inaccessible mountains? What mean the uncounted gems and precious stones 

 which lie undiscovered on the bottom of the ocean and in the bowels of the earth ? 

 Untold wonders lay open to the Divine Eye before the invention of the microscope, 

 and doubtless still greater remain undiscovered, which no perfection of human 

 instruments will ever enable man to behold. The Infinite Mind sees all these 

 things at once, the vast and the minute, and finds happiness in them. 



No one will deny that the world so made promotes man's happiness. The brute 

 creation cannot appreciate beauty, and hence their happiness was not taken into the 

 account in this thing. An ox can detect poisonous herbs by their odors, but he 

 never stops to admire a sunset ; he has no passion for mignonette. A dog will 

 trample down the finest parterre, in search of a bone. Man alone, of all creatures 

 on earth, is permitted to share with the Divine Being in the enjoyment of the 

 beautiful. And has not that Being dealt toward man, in this respect, with a God- 

 like benevolence ? He has made the earth a Paradise — not a prison-house. He 

 has made it not simply endurable, but a place of delight. 



These things being so, the beautiful in nature should receive attentive regard. 

 Some men affect indifference to every form of beauty, and others associate a taste 

 for such things with mental effeminacy. The fairest lily pleases them less than the 

 blossom of a pumpkin vine, for it promises nothing really useful. The most charm- 

 ing river charms them only as it feeds canals, or drives machinery. The most 

 stately tree excites only apprehensions of its injury to some growing crop, or sug- 

 gests calculations as to its worth in firewood and lumber. Let such men hear the 

 words of Channing : " Suppose that I were to visit a cottage, and to see its walls 

 lined with the choicest pictures of Raphael, and every spare nook filled with 

 statues of the most exquisite workmanship, and that I were to learn that neither 

 man, woman, nor child, ever cast an eye at these miracles of art, how should I 

 feel their privation ? how should I want to open their eyes, and to help them to 

 comprehend and feel the loveliness and grandeur which in vain courted their notice ! 

 But every dweller in the country is living in sight of the works of a diviner Artist ; 

 and how much would his existence be elevated, could he see the glory which shines 

 forth in their forms, hues, proportions, and moral expression !" 



This love of the beautiful should be carefully fostered. Too often is it repressed 

 and overshadowed by severely practical pursuits. Were it more assiduously culti- 

 vated, we should see less of that hard materialism and Epicureanism which now 

 prevail, less of that perilous haste to be rich, less of that vulgar ambition for 

 display, and more real culture of mind and simplicity of manners, more purity and 

 contentment. Happily, the means for its culture are confined to no class in society. 

 Wealth and power may lock up many rare specimens of art from the common gaze, 

 but they cannot monopolize the sunset, nor the thousand forms of beauty which 

 fill the earth. 



It hardly need be added here, that it is right to enjoy the beautiful. Did not the 

 Perfect Man, as he trod the earth, delight to look upon its various, pleasing as- 

 pects ? "Consider," said he, "the lilies of the field ! * * Solomon, in all his glory, 

 was not arrayed like one of these." Man might have lived a brute's life, subsisting 

 upon roots and nuts, but God saw fit to endow him with a higher style of existence, 

 and planned the world expressly to minister to his intellectual wants and tastes. 

 Does it then become ma.n to turn away from all these things as from things for- 

 bidden ? They are a royal gift, and should be gratefully received. They are not 

 a radical cure for the ills of life, but they are a most pleasing solace. They serve 

 ne and elevate the taste, to calm the passions, to soothe grief, and lighten 

 burdens. 



