--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Townsend, J. L. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 9 number: 6 published: 1906-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'J. L. Townsend, "The Picture: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 9, no. 6 (April 1906): 441.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0906unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0906unse start_page: 441 end_page: 441 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0906unse publication_year: 1906 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Picture: A Poem CONCERNING THE EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG. 441 humanity. While education, viewed from the social side, is love and service to God and man, it is also, from the individual point of view, a realization of the moral law within. There is no antagonism between a man's social duties and his moral perfection. Conflict between the desires of the individual and the good of society arises only on the lower plane of material self-seeking. The highway of social service is the only road to individual self-realization. "He that finds his life shall lose it; and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it. ' ' Likewise, he that seeks to perfect his life apart from society and from social duties shall mar it; and he that loses thought of himself in the service of others shall attain the highest and most complete development. Salt Lake City, Utah. THE PICTURE. (For the Improvement Era.) Can you paint for me a picture Of a meadow springing green, With a brooklet flowing thro' it, Laughing ripples in the scene? Willows bending over eddies, Pools a-flashing in the sun, And a group of happy children Crossing over, one by one? Can you show the "johnny- jump-ups, " Meadow violets so blue. And the children gath'ring nosegays Sparkling with the morning dew; Blackbirds darting o'er the fences; Bob-whites whistling o'er the way? — Painter, can you paint this picture, With its colors bright and gay? Can you show within the picture Little sweetheart's flaxen curls, Daintiest of all the children, Little queen among the girls? Tender eyes that I remember, Like the "johnny- jump-ups" blue;