220 Relations of N^atural History to Geology and the Arts. 



made of natural history to the arts. Charming as are the exqui- 

 site examples of ceramic, vitreous, and metallic manufactures col- 

 lected in our Museum, we cannot but feel that the workman, how- 

 ever fine his natural or acquired taste may be, is unaware of the 

 vast variety of beautiful shapes and designs that lie unused in the 

 treasury of nature. The aiding of the manufacturer in the per- 

 fecting of his works is one of the aims we profess. The chemist 

 can teach him how to improve his materials, or furnish him with 

 new substances and new pigments to use in his art ; the metallur- 

 gist can shew him those metallic compounds that can give the finest 

 effect to his castings ; the mineralogist and geologist can open out 

 fresh stores of ore and earth suitable for his operations. Cannot the 

 natui-alist also come foi'th with friendly aid, and render some good 

 service ? 



The relations of natural history with the arts are of two kinds, 

 either illustrative or suggestive. To the first belongs the inquiry 

 into the nature and sources of the numerous products derived from 

 the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and applied, or capable of being 

 applied, as direct materials for arts and manufactures. A more per- 

 fect acquaintance with old, and a discovery or indication of new, ma- 

 terials adapted for the exercise of human skill and workmanship 

 may thus be attained. But the naturalist may render higher, and, 

 at the same time, as practical services to the craftsman, by furnish- 

 ing out of the endless store of beautiful objects that are rendered 

 familiar to him by his scientific pursuits, sources of new and exqui- 

 site design, — fancies originating in the teeming brain of nature, — 

 God-born thoughts, that become manifest in living shapes, — all 

 consistent, — never jarring, — in every part admirably adapted to 

 each destined purpose. Now, the laws of these adaptations and 

 harmonies, the proportions by which the beauty of living things is 

 maintained, the ideas by which similar forms have been grouped in 

 nature, and, though like exceedingly, yet wondrously dissimilar, — 

 these are among the earnest studies of every philosophical naturalist. 

 Surely out of such studies lessons applicable to art may be derived ? 

 What is ornamental art but the isolation and embodiment in works 

 of human skill of the beauty that is diffused through all the works 

 of God ? And that beauty lies, not merely in the bulk of objects, 

 nor on their surface, but is as manifest in every part and atom com- 

 posing them as in the combined whole. It is in itself composite ; 

 the combination, not of lesser, but of minuter beauties. To imi- 

 tate, — to approach, — we must attempt a like arrangement, in order 

 to obtain the same exquisite result. And how, except throuo-h ear- 

 nest and scientific study, can we attain the knowledge that shall 

 enable us to discover the pat-hyyayt leading towards perfectioi)j^^^_ \^, 



