Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1857-12-23

The same goodness that created his soul
has furnished this dowry as permanent
treasure. If he possess this faith, he
can claim his privilege and enter into
the communion of the beautiful. Like
all true faith. it will give power and VIC
tory. The birds viii answer its call and
sing for him. The flowers will know its
presence and spread their many hues be
fore his loving eye. And the landscape
will be more the properly of him than
of the man who rides over it. broad
acres and numbers them as his own.
But this scene of beauty, if confined
to simple appreciation of external ma
ture, is not enough. The eye must moi
keep its gathered images in selfish inde
pendence. One part of our organization
must be faithful to every other part, and
the soul must rule over all. Beauty
seen must be beauty felt. II must be
cherished. priced, assimilated. And then
it must pervade our working skill, and
come forth renewed from our lips, and
shine in the products of our hands
There is no other way to convert beauty
into great and genuine power. Passive
enjoyment of its forms and aspects is
dead epicureanism. II is flower on a
grave; its roots are in corruption. If
you have seen beauty-if Nature has
charmed you in happy mood, and
silently shrined an image within your
brain, let it not stay there. twill with
er if you do. Hasten 10 put the beauty
into something. Go plant vine and
watch its growth; work among the flow
ers of your garden; trim the honey
suckle by the cottage door; festoon the
lattice afresh; or 90 into the orchard,
luxuriant in the promise of spring, and
gathering the blossoms. fast on them,
and find them sweeter than the fruits of
autumn. The privilege of beauty is at
last dependent. in some measure, on a
certain sort of utility. We must turn
all knowledge 10 good account. Fine
perceptions may go to the brain through
the eye, but they must perform their ap
pointed circuit, and reappear, by means
of the active faculties, in the outside
world. The consistency of Natures
economy is seen in this law, that what
ever is given TO US must be communica
ted back for the benefit of others as well
as for our own improvement. The wa
ters flash the sun shine from their rippled
surface into the air; and the kind earth,
receiving all day the solar heat, radiales
it itthrnugh the night Man must not be
unmindfnl of this wise and merciful or
dinance. Freely thou hast received,
freely give, holds firmly good for nature
no less than for religion. Does it cost
much, then, TO have beautiful homer
No. What the fashionable world calls
beautiful may be dear; but the real
beauty that is learned whenever Nature
te aches her art, is no serious expense
Are the green grass, the open flowers,
and the rolling landscape, the proud
emoluments of the millionaire? God be-
slows them on us all, and with them he
also bestows the ability, if We choose to
exercise it, TO initiate their beauty in our
homes and in our living. Have you
never thought that Heaven is place of
beauty as well as of purity? If such is
the fact, the cultivation of the beautiful
is, by the grace of Providence, within
the easy reach of US all. What grand
idea is that-"Ihe earth is his footstoolP'
So spake Christ. If you have strip Of
land-a home-on this footstool, would |
ii not be reverential and loving act to
beautify it as an offering to the Almighty !
Sovereign?
GIRLs.-Holmes in one of his poems |