1916
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF AMERICA
THIS BOOK
WHICH RECORDS WHAT SOME OF THEM HAVE DONE
IS HOPEFULLY DEDICATED
Some pure lovers of art discard the formula, Art for Progress, the Beautiful Useful, fearing lest the useful should deform the beautiful. They tremble to see the drudge's hand attached to the muse's arm. They are solicitous for the sublime if it descends as far as to humanity. Ah! they are in error. The useful, far from circumscribing the sublime, enlarges it.... Is Aurora less splendid, clad less in purple and emerald—suffers she any diminution of majesty and of radiant grace, because, foreseeing an insect's thirst, she carefully secretes in the flower the dewdrop needed by the bee?
Victor Hugo.