Beauty and Moral Worth 



IS "PROSPERITY'' AN ASSET OR A LIABILITY? 

 'By Louis E. Van Norman 



THE good, the true and the beautiful ! 

 What old Greek philosopher was it 

 who asserted that a right knowledge 

 of these three is necessary for man^s sal- 

 vation, and that, as attributes to be sought 

 after, they are closely bound together and 

 equal in importance? The Japanese be- 

 lieve that, by continually letting their 

 eyes . behold the beauties of nature, the 

 beauty of their soul and character must 

 expand and blossom also. "Nothing/' 

 said Michael Angelo, "makes a life so 

 pure, so religious, so refined, as the 

 creations of the beautiful". Euskin and 

 Morris reiterated this again and again. 

 "In my mind'', said the latter, "it is 

 not possible to dissociate art from mo- 

 rality, politics or religion. Truth, in 

 in all these great matters of principle, is 

 one." Double the beauty of the city you 

 live in and you double the beauty and dig- 

 nity of the life. 



For 1900 years Christmas has been a 

 symbol of the good and the true, of light 

 and love. The beautiful has not received 

 the consideration which is its due. Yet 

 what season more appropriate than Christ- 

 mas for a study of the life beautiful ? The 

 great founder of the Christian faith him- 

 self came to earth that man might have — 

 not money or material possessions — but 

 life, and have it more abundantly. 



Hi Hi H« 



Life, abundant, exalted, beautiful life — 

 such is the message of Christmas. By 

 almost universal choice of the race, Christ- 

 mas stands to the civilized man, whatever 

 his religious convictions, as the s3^mbol of 

 a higher, finer life. It symbolizes the 

 beginning of the life beautiful in the in- 

 dividual man and in the race. Is it not 

 an especially appropriate time to consider 



beauty for one's country and a beautiful 

 life for his countrj^men? 



* H« ❖ ❖ 



Josh Billings once remarked to one 

 about to be married — "Sometimes, my 

 friend, a wife is an asset, sometimes she's 

 a liability". It is much the same with 

 material possessions. They may be a help 

 to an individual or a nation — they may be 

 a clog and a hindrance. An over con- 

 sciousness of power and material posses- 

 sions is almost certain to dull the j)er- 

 ception of spiritual values, which are, after 

 all, the real things of life. 



❖ ^ ❖ 



A man's riches consist "not in the 

 abundance of things which he hath". Is 

 not this true also of a people ? "Material 

 prosperity, without the moral lift toward 

 righteousness," says Theodore Eoosevelt, 

 "means a diminished capacity for happi- 

 ness, and a debased character". The en- 

 cyclopedias and other authorities on statis- 

 tics do not include nobility of life, love 

 of beauty, idealism' and sturdy devotion 

 to principle among the "resources" of our 

 country. Yet the spirit of knightliness 

 which freed Cuba, and the quick response 

 to the need of the sufferers in Martinique 

 (these are but two examples of our na- 

 tional life in its finer manifestations) will 

 count for more in the estimation of the 

 future than all the "unparalleled pros- 

 perity", rapidly increasing population, 

 railroad mileage and tons of steel rails, 

 of which we are always boasting. 



^ ^ ^ 



After reading the editorial in the 

 j^ovember Home aitd Flowers, Pro- 

 fessor Brander Matthews, of Columbia 

 ITniversit}', wrote me, "T deny absolutely 

 our ^brutal commercialism', holding, that, 

 on the whole, we are the most idealistic 



