FOURTEEN] CULTIVATION 
at it. I guess, Powell, you are right; there is 
money in the beautiful. How is a fellow to get at 
it?” I told him I thought that people in the coun- 
try did not have the right sort of reading, and in the 
second place they did not hear or see what was 
about them. ‘‘ Write us a book,” he said; “‘make 
it plain, practical, straightforward, and helpful. 
Pll read it.” 
T have kept this idea of the beautiful in view in all 
my chapters. It must never be lost sight of in 
making a true country home. In selecting location, 
in building, in planting, and in all other ways, we 
seek the trinity of Plato — “The Beautiful, the 
True, and the Good.” One thing about this work 
is that it is very catching. One man, working out 
an ideal, sets his neighbors at it. ‘The influence 
spreads, and the example will constantly be im- 
proved upon. A recent writer says, “I know a 
city that was called by Sir Edwin Arnold the Venice 
of America because of its beauty. There is one 
street in that city more beautiful than any other; 
there is one block on that street the most beautiful 
of all. In that block stands the residence of a 
United States Senator, and in front of his residence 
the walks turn about two or three maple trees, that 
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