332 Mr D. R. Hay's Description of a 



of beauty ; but in the egg, it requires reflection to see or to 

 feel any great amount of that variety which it possesses ; 

 and, as also, by our natural powers we feel and understand 

 that all circles must be alike in their properties, so it is only 

 by the acquired powers of a well practised eye, and feelings 

 rendered sensitive through experience and a well informed 

 judgment, that we can perceive by how much one egg differs 

 from another, or which among many are the most beautiful — 

 is the nearest to perfect beauty in its outline, in consequence 

 of that infinite variety which is the essential constituent of 

 perfect beauty of form." 



Since Hogarth's " Analysis of Beauty'' was added to the 

 literature of art, infinite variety has, by most writers upon 

 the subject, been reckoned its principal constituent. This, 

 however, cannot be correct, and the error evidently arises 

 from not making any distinction between symmetrical beauty 

 and picturesque beauty, — the first depending upon unifor- 

 mity, and the second upon variety; both of which qualities, as 

 just stated, must be combined to produce the most perfect 

 beauty. 



The observations which I have quoted from Mr Harding's 

 excellent work, however, first set me seriously to work upon 

 the oval ; and I think I have at last succeeded in a mode of 

 producing and systematizing it, that will fill up an import- 

 ant desideratum in the arts of ornamental design. 



The machine which I have brought before you is one of 

 many methods that have suggested themselves to me for the 

 production of the true egg form, or oval. It consists, as you 

 will perceive, of a board with a spur-wheel in the centre, 

 which works upon a toothed rack, and is put in motion by a 

 lever with a slot or opening along its centre, to receive the 

 pencil. Two studs are fixed in the board, and another on 

 the end of the toothed rack ; which are the three foci of the 

 figure. Another stud is fixed into the board on the outside 

 of the focus that lies at the narrowest end of the intended 

 oval. If the curve at this point is to be acute, this stud will 

 be fixed very near to the focus, the father from this focus 

 it is fixed, the more rotund the oval will be. A flexible cord 

 is then tied tightly round these four studs, the last of which 



