THE ESSENCE OF THE FINE ARTS. 



tlic theme is endless : it is vain to enter into detals : in the most insignificant objects 

 of natuie we find the traces of the beautiful. What delightful curves in leaves, shells, 

 grasses ! What exquisite harmony of color also in some of the most ordinary plants and 

 flowers! in the plumage of the feathered tribe! seeming a link between earthly and ethe- 

 real creatures ; beauties greater and more numerous than appear to the common observer ; 

 beauties that only the artist can rightly appreciate; for the eye requires training and prac- 

 tice to see fully the beauties of creation. How wonderful, again, is the effect of motion 

 upon all! What elegance in the movements of some animals, particularly of the human 

 form. A charm ever new and inexhaustible. Beauty is but half developed when at rest : 

 j^Dneas, in Virgil, knew Venus to be a goddess at first sight, but only discovered her to 

 be the goddess of beauty when she moved : — 



"And by her graceful walk, the queen of love is known." 



Motion generally is expressive or suggestive of beauty : — 



" Thou canst not wave thy staff in the air, 

 Or dip thy padd.e m the lake, 

 But it forms the bow of beauty tliere, 

 And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake." 



After a survey of the glories of creation, the thought that first suggests itself to a re- 

 flective mind is the general indifference of mankind to it. The beautiful in nature, like 

 the beautiful in art, has too few, and among these, too many lukewarm worshippers. 

 For too many, nature may be said to waste its loveliness on the desert air. Beauty is 

 above, around, and beneath us, and we do not heed it. We tread on beauty and know 

 it not. Many are born, live, and pass away, with scarce a glance on the beautiful world 

 in which they live. There are many fossils, plaiits, and other works of nature, that we 

 scarcely notice, or at best with indifference, which, if they were produced by art, would 

 be preserved as treasures, and admired without bounds. We think little of nature's beau- 

 ties, perhaps, from their being so commonly about us. How often do we find men who 

 Avould stand in apparent rapture before a painted landscape, that would pass the original 

 with indifference; and be unmoved by the sublimest effect of sunshine and shadow 

 when presented by nature! Showing, however, that it was a conventional, rather than a 

 true and genuine feeling for the beautiful, by which they were excited. How often do we 

 find the physiologist in extacies with the scientific beauty of a subject, while utterly heed- 

 less of the charms that address him through the medium of form! The botanist, also, 

 whilst busy defining and classifying, too frequently loses some part of his enjoyment, by 

 by the non-contemplation of the ajsthetic, along with the structural grace; forgetting the 

 marriage of beauty and science; forgetting that nature speaks through these creatures to 

 the eye and the heart, as well as to the reason and intellect, by their transcendant beauty 

 of form and color. At the same time it must be granted that the pleasure of the artist 

 would be enhanced by tlie scientific knowledge of fitness, — adaptation of means to end, — 

 and the union of the various parts to the accomplishment of the contemplated result, 

 which natural objects exhibit. Like poetry and music, the aesthetic and scientific beau- 

 ties of objects may be said to stimulate each other, raise the thovights, and enhance the 

 pleasure of the spectator. 



In truly great minds, however, in all ages of the world, there has existed a deejj-rooted 

 love and veneration of nature. Milton considered it " an injury and suUenness against 

 nature, not to go out and see her riches, and partake of her rejoicings with heaven and 

 Here," exclaims an old English poet, in reference to woods — " Here is the 

 nassus, Castalia, and the Muses." And so charmed were the classic poets, wi 



