Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1873-07-17
The Beautiful and the Useful.

Man, under all circumstances, and
i'll every age has worshipped at the
shrine of beauty. The beautiful Hell
Ell caused the Trojan war-the mag
nificent Cleopatra seduced the warrior
from the field of glory, and held him
in her voluptuous embrace until his
empire was no more. And this love
of the beautiful is not confined to the
animate creation. The world has, as
it will continue to do homage to the
works of the Sculptor and Painter,
and Poetry and Music have elevated
the mind and entranced the soul. In
fact, this universal admiration of the
beautiful, either of form, or sound, Or
motion, is about all that is left us of
the pristine happiness of Eden
When man, through sin lost Paradise,
he went forth from the Garden to toll
and trouble. Henceforth and for all
time,labor became a necessity-hence-
forth whatever of good, or of happi-
ness, OF of success we would attain,
could only be had through care and
toll and tribulation. 1t is a striking
evidence of the wonderful elasticity
and power of the human mind, that
amid all the thousand cares of bust
ncss-the wearisomc perplexities of
trade-the onerous drudgery of pro-
fessional avocations, Man has always
found time, i'll some degree to pause
and consider, whether out of all this
toll and tribulation there might not
be erected some shrine of beauty
some monument along life's dusty
highway to remind his coming breth-
rem of the buried beauty of the past,
and to point them to the unfading
loveliness in the world beyond the
dark river. The necessities of man
have made him practical-the want
of food and clothing have deprived
him of much of culture and refine
ment, and it is with qualification that
we behold how much has been done
to so blend the useful with the beau
tiful, that while the eye falls upon
that which conveys happiness to the
soul, it is also gladdened by the tho't
that from these things, good to poor
suffering humanity may come.
This fragmentary thought forced
itself upon our mind, as we slowly
paced our beautiful Barron street,
from Main northward. 1t had been
a day of incessant rain-a day of
leaden skies and heavy gloom, but
just before the sun had faded in the
horizon, the rain had ceased,
and he sent back to the world his
farewell till morning by a messenger
of golden light-he painted on the
heavens a rainbow so full of trans
cendent loveliness as to work visions
of the Paradise beyond-the rain
drops in the emerald leaves were
gems of untold wealth, and the birds
full Of beauty and song hoped to and
fro, making evening vocal with their
roundelays. We passed toward the
with light spirits and pleasant
and on arriving at the
School House we beheld the sight
which has caused these thoughts
Our public Schools, are truly objects
of pride,--they show to the world
that we are alive to the necessity of
developing to the utmost the wonder
Gus intellectual power with which
has endowed us, and the
buildings, while large, comfortable
and well ventilated, have some pre-
tensions to architectural beauty. In
the education of u children our
School Board has been active and lib
eral, and deserve, and we are glad to
know, receive the gratitude of all.
But they have gone further, and that
10 quietly, that had we not stopped
IS we did, the whole of their labors