IO THE NEW METHOD 



find perfect models in nature's method of educating 

 the human race in its first steps in civilization. Na- 

 ture does absolutely nothing for man that he can 

 possibly do for himself ; but the infinite -sources of 

 light and truth, with all their beauties and harmonies, 

 are ever all about him, to educate him, to elevate his 

 thoughts and help him to attain to wisdom. 



There was a time when our ancestors saw nothing 

 around them but wild nature. There was no art. 

 There were no tools of any kind to assist the savage 

 in making a beginning in art. He had within him 

 the germ of all art — the germ of all science; but 

 without the stimulus of environment that germ could 

 no more expand and raise him out of his savage 

 state, than the acorn can become the stately oak 

 without the light and heat of the sun. 



The awakening of man's dormant faculties into ac- 

 tivity is and always has been the one condition of his 

 improvement. Nature's laboratories were in full 

 operation preparing for the coming of man long ages 

 before his advent. Although the primitive man 

 was ignorant of everything over head, around him, 

 and under foot, the crust of the earth was a great 

 storehouse of perfect material for the architect, the 

 sculptor, the painter, the blacksmith, the copper- 

 smith and the goldsmith. 



Just as long as man remained ignorant of the 



