--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Lambourne, Alfred collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 22 number: 11 published: 1919-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Lambourne, Alfred, "A Nature Spectacle," *Improvement Era* 22, no. 11 (September 1919): 952–953.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera22011unse 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: improvementera22011unse start_page: 952 end_page: 953 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1919-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera22011unse publication_year: 1919 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 1919, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # A Nature Spectacle A NATURE SPECTACLE "Beauty is its own excuse for being." And beauty may satisfy the eye, stimulate the mind, or | be a feast unto the heart and the soul. The 1 life of man is threefold, and at the Fountain of Beauty his nature must be filled. He who drinks not at those eternal waters, 1 knows not life. Without the perception, the love of beauty, one cannot learn the fulness of creation. | | In Beauty dwells the Divine. This is an exceptional year. In our mountain | land, nature with her elements earth, air, water, — \ \ fire — has proclaimed beauty. Never have the 1 [ spring blossoms been more abundant, the summer | verdure more profuse. Of uncounted numbers 1 i have been the leaves upon the trees; the mountain 1 heights, transformed each hour, served as a won- 1 der link between the wonder of the earth and the 1 wonder of the skies. Yesterday closed with a sunset, a sunset excep- | I tional in this year of exceptions. Over the Inland I 1 Sea, gold and scarlet, the western clouds, the high- I I floating cirri, the piled-up cumuli, were gorgeous | | with color, were radiant as of liquid gold and I 1 molten rubies, and the void above them was of 1 | gleaming beryl passing into deepened cerulean [ 1 where space was filled with earth's shadow cone. | 1 And above the clouds, too, the love-planet, Venus, 1 | burned white and clear, while in the east the sky j ~ =Ti 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 T 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 E I > 1 1 1 1 1 1 T 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ] 1 1 1 ] 1 1 i I ! 1 1 1 1 T 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 F I } 1 1 1 1 1 1 ! i 1 P 1 1 ! 1 1 1 1 1 1 M 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 M 1 1 1 1 J 1 1 1 J 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 M 1 1 > I > 1 1 1 M 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ( 1 1 1 1 1 1 P I J i :'HnillMMIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIMnilllllUIMIII!MIIIIIMIIIIIinillll!MIUIIMIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIinilnMllllllllllllllllllllllinilinillllllHlllll!IHIII»IUIIIIIIII!llllllllllllllllll|L- I was richest amethyst, with one spot of quickening | i amber, where, above the Wasatch, the moon was | i rising to flood with solemn light the vale below. 1 I Indeed it was a spectacle! 1 And this was free for all men to behold. Free unto the sight of all men; no ticket was 1 | needed, there was no price to pay; free unto all are | I the beauty and wonder of creation. And yet few, | | indeed, were the persons who looked upon that ra- 1 ! diant spectacle of the earth and skies. Is it so | with the wonder gifts of life? Do men neglect that § which is real, to seek that which is but imitation? 1 Those who neglected that wonder-truth of nature | | hastened to places of amusement and bought their 1 tickets to look on sham. Round us are the spec- 1 tacles of nature, the miracle of life. Truly, there 1 is that to satisfy the eye, stimulate the mind, and | to be a feast unto the heart and the soul ! How do | we select, how do we absorb into our being? Do | we make ours the true and leave out the sham? | Are we en rapport, in harmony with that which is 1 most beautiful, the highest —that which is eternally | true? Through beauty, physical, mental, spiritual, | do we realize the divine? 1 Sometimes we look on transcendent manifesta- 1 tions of beauty that sunset was one. In one be-— | holder, at least, it awoke a longing to make com- 1 plete the spectacle of the divine, with that trinity, § the corporeal eye, the intellect, and the soul. Alfred Lambourne. % -^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii in iiiiiiii mi iiniiiiiiii ii mi ii nun in in in ii i in in ii n in ii n inn i i i i ii in iin<~