THE BEAUTIFUL IN ART. 



he produces, as he is the most capable of seeing the truthfulness and transcendancy of na- 

 ture. He is also the most capable of seeing the immense distance between her common- 

 place, every-day effects, and those Avhich she sometimes exhibits to the educated and poet- 

 ic eye. 



The comparative feebleness of art is further apparent when we consider, in the greatest 

 works of art, how few the beauties, how many the faults; how seldom we find a picture 

 that is good in more than one department of the art I The great colorist is deficient in 

 composition; one wonderful in conception and composition, may have no idea of color : 

 while the master of chiaroscurso is a novice in everything else; suggesting the fact, that 

 only the union of the talents of several artists, supposing that possible, could secure a full, 

 truthful rendering of nature. Each of tliese important departments has had its respective 

 master, but where is the magician who, uniting their varied excellencies in one produc- 

 tion, can conjure up before us the entire spirit and sentiment of nature, and reveal to us 

 the whole mystery of creation? 



Besides, from nature comes every element of art; within her sphere lies all the inspira- 

 tion of genius. An abstract idea of beauty, it is true, exists in the mind, transcribed 

 from no individual object or creature. But, as Pope asks, from what can we reason but 

 from what we know? so, we may inquire, what can we conceive and image to ourselves, 

 but from what we have seen? The first part of genius is a strong susceptibility to the in- 

 fluence of beauty in nature. And the Muses were rightly conceived as the daughters of 

 memorj^: the great ideas which the Raphaels and Titians have sought to embody, howev- 

 er gradual their growth, have been indebted to nature for every stage of their advancement. 



Architecture, as we have seen, in common with all the fine arts, derives its principle of 

 beauty from nature; but unlike the rest, it is indebted to nature for something else, close- 

 ly allied to, and in some measure interwoven with the other, viz : constructive principle. 

 Structure is an important element of architecture, and fortunately for us, the affinity be- 

 tween it and nature extends also to construction. Of this fact many illustrations could be 

 given, and of the use made of it by architects. The constructive principle of St. Bride's 

 Church steeple at London, with its spiral staircase and newal,it is well known was deriv- 

 ed by Sir C. Wren from a common form of spiral shell. The dome of the Cathedral of 

 Florence owes its origin to the structure of the human skull, the peculiarity of which is 

 its combining strength with lightness. The naval architect has obtained valuable hints 

 for ship-building from the structure of shells. The figure of the duck originally suggest- 

 ed the form of the ship, and certainly the finest models, the best for contending- with 

 winds and waves, are those that most resemble their original, as the Dutch galliot will 

 attest. 



But, as in art, so in science, we cannot directly compete with nature; we cannot reach 

 her wonderful mathematical skill, — the nice balance of forces, — resistance, and strain; we 

 must waste our material, and, after all, be behind in that certainty which characterises 

 her engineering enterprises, which is visible in her most ordinary productions. 



Let us glance for a moment over the empire of art, with an eye to this analogy with 

 nature. In music's various moods and instruments we recognise the various hymns of 

 nature, — the murmuring stream, the melody of birds, the wind upon the shore in " vocal 

 reed," which are music's acknowledged types. Many oft-used expressions, as " a tide 

 of harmony," " floods of melody," "gush of song," are confessions of this analogy. 

 Campbell speaks of the "stormy music of the drum;" Shakespeare makes music the 

 food of love, and compares its dying fall to a gentle wind stealing over violets; and 

 ton's " heavenly host" 



