DISSECTING A DAISY 



333 



lect would be too prominent to allow of its inclu- 

 sion among aesthetic feelings. But when we look 

 into a daisy merely to recognize its minute work- 

 manship, its marvelous complexity, its incredible 

 accuracy of detail, our pleasure is truly and sim- 

 ply aesthetic in kind. 



In the last sentence we have hit by accident 

 upon the source of this pleasure. It is derived 

 from the gratification with which we regard deli- 

 cate workmanship in human products. Both the 

 cocoanut and the obelisk showed us how large a 

 factor this feeling forms in our appreciation of 

 artistic handicraft. The theory of special crea- 

 tion, which taught us for so many generations to 

 regard each organism as a separate invention of 

 the Supreme ilind, naturally led us to extend the 

 notion of intentional ornamentation and decora- 

 tive detail to these living forms, moulded into 

 shape by the finger of God. And even now, 

 when many of us have learned to see in every 

 plant or animal the natural resultant of antece- 

 dent causes acting by physical laws on an endless 

 line of ancestors, we still figure to ourselves the 

 minute organization of each in terms of human 

 activity. We find a flower or a shell most beau- 

 tiful when we think of it as an artistic product. 

 The very words we apply to them — sculpture, 

 tracery, chiseling, and so forth — are derived 

 from the works of man, and add a fresh sense 

 of beauty to the natural objects which we invest 

 with their connoted ideas. A couple of examples 

 will make this clear. 



As I came along this morning from the quiet 

 watering-place where we have pitched our sum- 

 mer tent, I did a little amateur geologizing in 

 the blue lias cliffs which I passed on my way. 

 Among other fossils, I found this ammonite. A 

 beautiful object it is, even in the eyes of children, 

 who may often be seen hunting for them in the 

 fallen debris of the cliff; for its surface is brill- 

 iant with a metallic iridescence, and gold or 

 bronze alternate every moment on its shining 

 crystalline texture with fitful gleams of gorgeous 

 purple and strange undertones of lucid green. 

 But a closer glance reveals other beauties besides 

 this simple effect of scattered light-rays. The 

 spire is composed of three or four overlapping 

 whorls, exquisitely graceful in their curved out- 

 line and fullness of depth. The dorsal ridge, or 

 backbone of the shell, is embossed with small 

 studs and projections at proportionate distances. 

 The sides are covered by a fluted pattern, carved 

 with a delicate accuracy which no human graver 

 could compass. And, more wonderful than all, 

 traversing this sculptured surface in every direc- 



tion are tiny lines of tracery, like the leaves of a 

 very delicate fern, repeated at measured intervals 

 over all the whorls. In and out they wind, each 

 one following exactly the same course as its 

 neighbors, so that the space between any two 

 lines forms a symmetrical and marvelously mi- 

 nute pattern, compared to which the finest lace is 

 a mere bungling mass of knotted cord. This am- 

 monite was once a chambered shell, like that of 

 the pearly nautilus in our own time ; and each 

 of these sutures, as the sculptured lines are called 

 in scientific books, marks the point of juncture 

 between one of the chamber-walls and the exter- 

 nal shell. Wrinkled and twisted into ten thou- 

 sand folds, it yet preserves throughout its exquisite 

 symmetry, and presents to our eyes an appear- 

 ance of decorative design which no amount of 

 reasoning can dispel from our fancy and our 

 aesthetic imagination. To the last, we shall think 

 of it as a piece of Nature's handiwork, and praise 

 her for the exquisite taste and unapproachable 

 skill which she lavishes on all her productions. 



Or, take again some of those fossil trees of 

 the coal-measures, which grew like huge club- 

 mosses and mare's-tails to the height of our own 

 modern tropical palms. Even a geologist de- 

 scribes them as " fluted columns, ornately carved 

 in the line of the channeled flutes ; " as " sculpt- 

 ured into gracefully-arranged rows of pointed and 

 closely-imbricated leaves, similar to those into 

 which the Ronran architects fretted the torus of 

 the Corinthian order ; " and as " furnishing ex- 

 amples of a delicate diaper-work, like that so ad- 

 mired in our more ornate Gothic buildings — such 

 as Westminster Abbey or Canterbury and Chi- 

 chester Cathedrals — only greatly more exquisite 

 in their design and finish." Wherever we look 

 at a description of beautiful natural objects which 

 owe their effectiveness to detail and intricacy, we 

 shall find the self-same language employed. The 

 apparent similarity to human handicraft is the 

 peg upon which we hang our aesthetic admira- 

 tion. 



So, too, with our little daisy. As we peer 

 into its golden disk, we see in it one of Nature's 

 most complicated works — a whole head of flow- 

 ers, each in perfect miniature, with every part 

 complete, crowded into a circle of half an inch 

 diameter. It is truly wonderful ! I will call my 

 little neighbors here, and ask them to enjoy the 

 spectacle with me. Strange, indeed ! they come 

 and look at it, but don't betray the slightest 

 symptom of interest. I try again. I take a sin- 

 gle bell on the point of a pin, and dilate upon its 

 loveliness. The eldest of the two stares at me 



