THE BEAUTIFUL IN ART. 



' Sang hallelujah as the sound of seas." 



In the department of architecture we shall find equal interest. The " twilight grove" is 

 seen in the temple colonnade, or "dim religious aisle." The "awe-inspiring dome" 

 speaks of the canopy of the skies — the celestial hemisphere — which has in some instances 

 been its model. The beautiful curves of the capitals and shafts of the antique columns 

 are at least suggested by lines in nature. The earliest Egyptian column was a stalk of 

 the lotus, capped by its calix; and its base was, in all probability, the foot of the same 

 plant, where it issues from the root. 



All descriptions of design are varied pictures or reflections of nature. "Whether a single 

 edifice, or group of edifices, or picturesque avenue, be the object of our admiration as a 

 work of art, one source of our pleasure must be a recognition of principles dictated by 

 nature, and a recollection of corresponding effects in her wide domain. 



Every true style has its types in nature, every shade of character its corresponding ex- 

 pression there. The principles of design have been learnt in her school. In the decora- 

 tion of architecture we shall find nearl}'- the whole of the vegetable kingdom, which, 

 though not literally copied, are yet the most easily traced. No department of creation 

 seems better adapted for decoration in the arts of architecture, sculpture, &c.,than this: 

 plants, their foliage, flowers, fruits, have accordingly been more extensively cmijloyed, 

 as the basis of ornamentation, than any other objects. In some Gothic buildings the 

 abundance of floral decorations renders them rivals, in point of luxuriance, of Nature her- 

 self. Plants were very early thus employed. The almond, pomegranate, and flowers 

 were chosen, even in the wilderness, by divine appointment, to give form to the sacred 

 utensils; and, down to the present time, the iv}', lotus, acanthus, palm, vine, oak, and 

 other beautiful objects of the vegetable creation have been the subjects of the chisel, and 

 have given life and expression to architecture and the arts of decoration. 



The types of art are in nature, but art, as before shown, cannot be entirely referred to 

 that source. The soul of man has had part, and through that part may, generally, be 

 read much that is interesting of the character and history of the times that produced it. 

 The monuments of art are always the true representatives of the physical, moral, and in- 

 tellectual state of man. They are the exponents of his religious and political position, 

 and indicate the exact character of his mental development at the corresponding periods 

 of his annals. Nations have written the records of their history in stone. The temples, 

 the palaces, the monuments of Germany, France, and England are so many pertrified 

 poems. The Vatican, the Escurial, the Alhambra, each unfold to us more than many 

 volumes could have done, of all that is interesting to man, of all those absorbing and fas- 

 cinating subjects on which we would question the past. Catholicism has written its his- 

 tory, and more than is ordinarily understood by history, in the monasteries, cathedrals, 

 and monuments of the middle ages; and, whatever be its subsequent fate, the memory, 

 at least, of its worship will need no other shrine. Liberty, commerce, and industry have 

 recorded their enterprise, also, in the same characters. And the monuments of munici- 

 pal greatness are not among the least of the trophies and achievements of architecture. 

 Ambition has imbodied its yearnings and its triumphs in pyramids, columns, obelisks, 

 triumphal arches ; humanity in hospitals, and schools, and institutions of benevolence; 

 and science in railroads, tunnels, aqueducts, and bridges. The edifices of England are 

 so many chapters of our history. The genius of a nation, as well as of the architect, is 

 stamped upon such relics 



We have seen that art is one in its origin, — that its waters, however diversified their 

 channel, flow from one fountain, and its glories, however differing in hue, are reflections 



