THE VALUE OF BEAUTY 201 



that ,we may find in the end is the most noteworthy 

 characteristic, but its beauty— its own particular 

 beauty. The conventional gold or oil prospector, 

 or railway engineer, or seeker for sites for rubber 

 or coffee plantation, or pasture-lands for sheep and 

 cattle, may not bother his head about the beauty of 

 the forests, the rivers, the prairies, and the moun- 

 tains he is exploring. He is much too absorbed in 

 the practical business of life to be distracted by 

 anything so fanciful — as he thinks. Yet even he 

 does see the beauty, and long afterwards he finds it 

 is that which has stuck most firmly in his mind. 

 And when he has unthinkingly destroyed it, future 

 generations lament his action and take measures to 

 preserve what remains. Advertisements, also, show 

 us daily that nearly all countries — and it seems more 

 especially new countries like Canada and New 

 Zealand — regard Natural Beauty as one of their 

 most valuable assets. And the reason why the 

 Natural Beauty of the Earth is deemed so valuable 

 a characteristic of its features is not hard to under- 

 stand when we come to reflect. It is because Beauty 

 is a quality which appeals to the universal in man — 

 appeals to all men for all time, and appeals to them 

 in an increasing degree. It is something which all 

 men can admire and enjoy. And the more they 

 enjoy it the more they want to get others to share 

 in their enjoyment. Also the more Natural Beauty 

 they see, the more, apparently, there is to see. 

 Poets in their poems, and painters in their pictures, 

 are continually pointing out to us less keen-sighted 

 individuals new beauties in the features of the Earth. 

 The mineral wealth of the Earth has its limits ; even 



