XI. 



USE AND BEAUTY 



IX one of his essays, Emerson remarks, that what Nature 

 at one time provides for use, she afterwards turns to 

 ornament ; and he cites in illustration the structure of a 

 sea-shell, in which the parts that have for a while formed 

 the mouth are at the next season of growth left behind, 

 and become decorative nodes and spines. 



It has often occurred to me that this same remark might 

 be extended to the progress of Humanity. Here, too, the 

 appliances of one era serve as embellishments to the next. 

 Equally in institutions, creeds, customs, and superstitions, 

 we may trace this evolution of beauty out of what was once 

 purely utilitarian. 



The contrast between the feeling with which we regard 



o o 



portions of the Earth s surface still left in their original 

 state, and the feeling with which the savage regarded them, 

 is an instance that naturally comes first in order of time. 

 If any one walking over Hampstead Heath, will note how 

 strongly its picturesqueuess is brought out by contrast 

 with the surrounding cultivated fields and the masses of 

 houses lying in the distance ; and will further reflect that, 

 had this irregular gorse-covered surface extended on all 

 sides to the horizon, it would have looked dreary and 

 prosaic rather than pleasing ; he will see that to the primi 

 tive man a country so clothed presented no beauty at all. 



