c. Our Republic is great in
some things,--in material development unrivalled; but let us always
remember that in art and in the finer touches we have scarcely yet taken
a place. Had the exquisite memorial arch recently erected temporarily in
New York been shown in Dresden, the art committee there would probably
have been enabled, from the revenue of the newspaper given by its owner
for just such purposes, to order its permanent erection to adorn the
city forever.

While the bestowal of a park upon a community as one of the best uses
for surplus wealth will be universally approved, in embracing such
additions to it as conservatories, or in advocating the building of
memorial arches and works of adornment, it is probable that many will
think we go too far, and consider these somewhat fanciful. The material
good to flow from them may not be so directly visible; but let not any
practical mind, intent only upon material good, depreciate the value of
wealth given for these or for kindred aesthetic purposes as being
useless as far as the mass of the people and their needs are concerned.
As with libraries and museums, so with these more distinctively artistic
works; these perform their great use when they reach the best of the
masses of the people. It is worth more to reach and touch the sentiment
for beauty in the naturally bright minds of this class than that those
incapable of being so touched should be pandered to. For what the
improver of the race must endeavor to do is to reach those who have the
divine spark ever so feebly developed, that it may be strengthened and
grow. For my part, I think Mr. Phipps put his money to better use in
giving the workingmen of Allegheny conservatories filled with beautiful
flowers, orchids, and aquatic plants, which they, with their wives and
children, can enjoy in their spare hours, and on which they can feed the
love for the beautiful, than if he had given his surplus money to
furnish them with bread, for those in health who cannot earn their bread
are scarcely worth considering by the individual giver; the care of such
being the duty of the state. The man who erects in a city a truly
artistic arch, statue, or fountain makes a wise use of his surplus. "Man
does not live by bread alone."

_Fifth_--We have another good use for surplus wealth, in providing for
our cities halls suitable for meetings of all kinds, especially for
concerts of elevating music. Our cities are rarely provided with