50 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1881. 



cry cui bono f For what good is it ? What is all this worth ? 

 How does all this expenditure of time and money pay? As 

 thono-h the habiliments of the soul, the garments which clotlie 

 the immortal mind, conld be bought with gold ! As though the 

 elevating influence of splendid architecture or the refining power 

 of some master-piece in painting or sculpture could be measured 

 by dollars and cents ! As though happiness and peace and that 

 intellectual pleasure of the true lover of nature and art could be 

 purchased by even wealth untold ! 



Why were these powers of the soul given us by our Creator — 

 this love of harmony and sweet sounds — this exquisite suscepti- 

 bility to beauty in every shape — this desire to reach after those 

 things which are above and beyond our present state of exist- 

 ence, higlier and nobler than the dull routine of daily life can 

 furnish ? Why should we feel such thrills of pleasure in the 

 contemplation of nice proportions and the delicate arrangements 

 of light and shade? Why revel in the pleasing fictions of the 

 imagination from the pen of the poet or novelist ? Why should 

 the laughter of the ocean-wave, the roar of the tempest, the 

 diapason of the thunder, the gorgeous hues of sunset, the incense 

 of flowers, produce within us such alternations of emotion from 

 quiet happiness to rapturous delight ? Why were these powers 

 given us unless to gratify and cultivate? And why should man, 

 made but little lower than tlie angels, created with all these sus- 

 ceptibilities and capable of this infinite variety of enjoyment — 

 why should he make of himself a mere machine, plod on day 

 after day, worsliip Mammon as the god of his idolatry, pass 

 through this earthly pilgrimage unloving and unloved, and die 

 with no more knowledge of those noble faculties undeveloped in 

 his soul than the merest clod beneath his feet ? 



God made not man for such a fate. And he who shuts his 

 eyes to all the wonders of art, to all the beauties of the external 

 world, who will not satisfy these cravings of his immortal na- 

 ture — such a man but half fulfils the great end and object of his 

 existence. He refuses to glorify his Maker by a tribute of praise 

 and gratitude for all these manifestations of His benevolence 

 with which he is surrounded — refuses to employ those means 

 which the Almighty has placed in his power by which he may 

 not only render his earthly life more happy, but better fit him- 

 self for an eternal life when this his earthly life shall end. 



