194 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



(2) The 2-Esihetic. 



The second aspect to which I would invite attention is the 

 Esthetic, the aim of arousing and stimulating the appreciation of 

 what is beautiful in nature and in art. First, the neighbourhood in 

 which we live has its distinctive features. It may be the wooded 

 kloofs, and the soft velvety slopes of the hills, with the murmuring 

 stream, parent of music and rhythmical sound ; or the towering 

 mountains with their rugged tops and mighty shadows ; or, perhaps, 

 the great stretch of veld with its vastness and its mystery, that 

 Nature presents to us. Someone has said that "no race of men which 

 is entirely bred in wild counthry, far from cities, ever enjoys land- 

 scape " ; and it is undoubtedly true that the sense of contrast is 

 essential to the full apreciation of anything. But, while unbroken 

 familiarity may fail to awaken the sense, it is surely possible by 

 attention to rouse and stimulate it. So much of the natural beauty 

 of this South African land seems to consist in appeal to one as being 

 fresh from the hand of God ; whereas in older countries so little can 

 be seen that does not bear some record on its surface of human 

 activity, awakening historical and other associations. It is in this 

 virgin freshness of this country that its chief charm lies ; and that 

 is the reason, perhaps, why the South-African-born feels in the 

 hedged fields and trim landscapes of the old countries a sense of 

 artificialitv and restraint. There can be no doubt that this vastness 

 and freshness of landscape has its reflex in the freedom and inde- 

 pendence of colonial character. 



Thus far of the land surface only, but '.vhat of the rhnngeful 

 wonder of the skies, if only the attention is once directed to their 

 charm. And the beauty of the trees and the flowers, and the birds 

 — the brilliance of colouring which seems to be the chief feature of 

 all things in a land of sunshine. In this consideration of earth and 

 sky, the practical too often obtrudes itself, to the exclusion of nny 

 thought of beauty, — a stretch of upland suggesting merely a propo- 

 sition in sheep, and a glorious sunset spelling only weather and crops. 



Whatever sense and taste — or the lack of these — have l>een 

 developed in man from his observation of such things, gives character 

 to the works he produces and the new face that he puts upon nature. 

 And here there surely seems to be, in some respects, a grievous falling 

 off from the past. Consider the charm of the old Dutch farm-houses 

 of the Western Province, their solidity and simplicity of architecture, 

 their quaint gables and thatched roofs, nestling among immemorial 

 oaks, and compare them with the conventional type of dwelling that 

 the modern architect has created for later generations— its tin roof, 

 tawdry verandahs and pepperbox ornamentations. Cannot the taste 

 and character of the inmate be read from the form of the home he 

 creates for him.self ; and does not the contrast suggest some falling 

 awav from the strength and simplicity of earlier days ? There has 

 been no doubt a recent revival in house architecture, and much is 

 being done in the Cape Peninsula and elsewhere, not only towards 



