Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1848-02-10
MIS- CELL A N EOUS.
From the Union Magazine.
BEAUTY AND GOODNESS.
BY REV. J. N. DANFORTH.

e
is much beauty. 1t greets us at our entrance
into it, even before we have power to ap-
preciate it, as in mothers smile, itself the
EXPIRE Of perhaps The deepest emotion
Of which our moral nature is capable; and
fathers Joy, which is awakened by the
new fact of our individual existence. A
happy constitution it is, that to the child
the mother always looks beautiful, unless
she violates some precept of that decalogue
of affections which the finger of God has in
scribed on the ss'Aeshly tables of the heart
Thus it is, that love and beauty (no, in their
romantic sense) are inseparably associated
in certain forms Of our existence.
| But it is not alone in the exercise of the
higher and deeper affections of humanity
that we are to seek for the beautiful. The
material world that surrounds us overf1ows
with it. Take, for instance, the early dawn
Of summers day, that period of the m orn-
ing which precedes the oulbursiing Of the
splendors ofthe sun; or select, ifyou please
the hour Of 'dewy eve" when that same lu-
minary has "bathed his burning axle" in the
deep waters of the Pacific. Could mortal
pencil ever approach the execution of such
panoramic scenes of beauty? All, all is o.
riginal. All else is copy. Everywhere the
difference between the finite and the infinite
meets the mind of man. Now, the simple
purpose of lighting the world might have
been accomplished wilhou. so lavish dis
play OF, ] had almost said, Kaleidoscope
beauty. Blu. God delights in benevolence.
as we'll as in beauty, physical, intellectual
and spiritual. Hence, the union Of beauty
and goodness, in SO many of his individual
Gets and fixed constitutions.
Now, to appreciate duly this combination,
as we'll as 10 enjoy fully the natural scenes
which are evidential of it, man must be in
la healthy state. If disease is wearing on,
his system, he will have little relish for such
objects. They are but mockery to dying
man, unless, indeed, the religious principle
is triumphant within him. If he be man
of diseased principles and pronigate practi-
ces; if there be not healthy tone of the
moral system, he is not the man to look on
the displays OF goodness and beauty. A
drunkard, a gambler, or a sluggard of any
kind, will not rise to behold the dawning
glories of the East; and, if he did, would
not enjoy them. That deprivation is one
Of the penalties annexed to his transgres-
sions.
So, for aught we perceive, all the purpo-
ses Of flower might have been answered
without investing it with such varied and
exquisite beauty, and especially wi.hou, adj
ding to it that delightfully."- mysterious fra
GRANGE, SO exciting to the appropriate or
gans, and often awakening, particularly in
the female bosom, emotions Of the highest
enthusiasm. Is i, because of her superior
purity? Or is there among the inward and
invisible elements of that soul gentleness,
a beauty, hidden fragrance, that cores
ponds, and, SO to speak. congenia7izes with
The outward works of God? ] have some
times stood and admired the passionate fond
ness Of child for flowers. The rapture OF
that little girl, in her young and guileless
being, was perfectly contagious, and found
my own heart dancing with sympathetic
Joy. ] was sure that in her all was natural
An experienced beauty might mingle some
airs Of a1ectalion with her soft eulogies on
the most beautiful portion Of the vegetable
creation, as there are those in fashionable
life, who would not on any account be
thought destitute of taste for the fine arts.
and so purchase and admire pictures and
s,a!uary, without really possessing any judg-
ment, if they have any pleasure in such mat
tiers. But child revels with unsophislica-
ted emotions in this enchanting region OF
Natures great empire: worships with pure
and burning devotion, in this part of her no.
" temple. Yet it cannot be proved, tina,
such sources Of pleasure are essential TO the
existence and The progress of childhood
But they are essential to the more perfect
development of the benevolence Of God, de-
Lighting, as it does, to associate itself with
the forms of natural beauty in order to pro.
mote and exalt the happiness even of child
Nor should any one presume to interfere
with that felicity. A crus,y old bachelor
or childless husband, "a far superior cha.
rac'er,) might be disguised with an enthu'
slasm for which he had no sympathy, but
let him take care how he offends one O
these little ones. There are guardian spi
Ins mlnlslering to them, invisible, but real
.I II doubted by men, yet accredited IN the
court OF heaven, and acting under the high
estfegal authority. 'In heaven they do al
ways behold the face of my Father who il
in heaven," said He, whose humanity, shrin
ing the divinity, was upheld and sanctife.
by that sublime and mysterious connection
while it graced the ungra.eful world tina
scorned and cruci6ed Him. He, in the day
of his flesh, stopped with a profound an,
graceful tenderness 10 the little ones, ant
mingled his own crystal sympa,hies will
the spirit of childhood. He rebuked tn
temper that would repel them from tn
charities Of Christianity. lie spoke word