THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 131 



cheerless but of doors, but the picture opens up 

 a world of sunshine and gladness. Are you 

 heavy-hearted? There before you is a picture 

 full of tranquility and beauty^ or possibly a 

 portrait of a remembered loved one whose 

 very soul looks at you so kindly and scatters 

 at once your clouds and banishes your sorrows 

 and inspires new courage. What a charming 

 momentary change and contrast ! 



Thus, pictures are consolers of one's loneli- 

 ness; they are sweet flattery to the soul, a re- 

 lief to the overtaxed mind; they are windows 

 to the imprisoned thought, they are books writ- 

 ten full of life's suggestive ideas ; they are his- 

 tories and biographies and romances which can 

 be read without turning leaves. So it is beauti- 

 ful pictures in a home educate and refine and 

 confer lifelong pleasures. We never tire of 

 them. Seen at different hours and under dif- 

 ferent light, they vary as a landscape and seem 

 to have varying messages but the message is 

 always pleasing and profitable. 



A beautiful picture is a revelation ; it awakens 

 thought, enforces observation and compels the 

 study of correspondences and relations. What- 

 ever widens the mental horizon, stimulates in- 

 quiry, excites comparison or in any way helps 

 on toward the good, the beautiful and the true, 



