In one of the earlier chapters of his “Les Miserables,” Victor
Hugo tells how a good bishop answered his housekeeper once. She
expostulated with his lordship for giving a full quarter of his
garden to flowers, saying that it would be better and wiser to
grow lettuce there than bouquets. “Ah, Madame Magloire,” replied
the bishop, “the beautiful is as useful as it is beautiful.”
The ministry of beauty is one of the overflowings of the divine mind
and heart, and serves God’s purpose in common with the utilities of His
works.
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