ul.

There is a lack in the make-up of a person who has no appreciation of
beauty, who does not thrill before a great picture or an entrancing
sunset, or a glimpse of beauty in nature.

Savages have no appreciation of beauty. They have a passion for
adornment, but there is nothing to show that their esthetic faculties
are developed. They merely obey their animal instincts and passions.

But as civilization advances ambition grows, wants multiply, and higher
and higher faculties show themselves, until in the highest expression
of civilization, we find aspiration and love of the beautiful most
highly developed. We find it manifested on the person, in the home, in
the environment.

The late Professor Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard University, one of
the finest thinkers of his day, said that beauty has played an immense
part in the development of the highest qualities in human beings; and
that civilization could be measured by its architecture, sculpture, and
painting.

What an infinite satisfaction comes from beginning early in life to
cultivate our finer qualities, to develop finer sentiments, purer
tastes, more delicate feelings, the love of the beautiful in all its
varied forms of expression!

One can make no better investment than the cultivation of a taste for
the beautiful, for it will bring rainbow hues and enduring joys to the
whole life. It will not only greatly increase one's capacity for
happiness, but also one's efficiency.

A remarkable instance of the elevating, refining influence of beauty
has been demonstrated by a Chicago school-teacher, who fitted up in her
school a "beauty corner" for her pupils. It was furnished with a
stained glass window, a divan covered with an Oriental rug, and a few
fine photographs and paintings, among which was a picture of the
Sistine Madonna. Several other esthetic trifles, artistically
arranged, completed the furnishings of the "beauty corner." The
children took great delight in their little retreat, especially in the
exquisite coloring of the stained glass window. Insensibly their
conduct and demeanor were affected by the beautiful objects with which
they daily associated. They became more gentle, more refined, more
thoughtful and considerate. A young Italian boy, in particular, who
had been incorrigible before the establishment of the "beauty corner,"
became, in a short time, so changed and softened that the teacher was
astonished. One day she asked him