The Birds’ Calendar 
joint—as old as Adam, nay, older, for it was in 
the machinery of the megatherium, in his pre- 
Adamic, paleozoic peregrinations. The ‘‘ ball 
and socket ’’ is another contribution of the ani- 
mal frame to the mechanical service of man; 
and microscopic and telescopic science finds its 
lens in the eyeball. As Dryden says: 
‘* By viewing nature, nature’s handmaid, art, 
Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow ; 
Thus fishes first to shipping did impart, 
Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow.” 
The hollow columnar structure, as combining 
the greatest strength and lightness, finds its pro- 
totype in the bone, while the frieze of the Cor- 
inthian column was suggested by seeing acanthus 
leaves growing around a vase. And as for sculpt- 
ure and painting, they are most essentially imi- 
tative, discriminatingly reproductive of Nature’s 
examples. Some one has said that it requires 
more skill to make a good quotation than to do 
original thinking—which, if true, is very flatter- 
ing to mankind, who have been quoting from 
Nature steadily for six thousand years. And 
the famous wise man of antiquity has declared, 
‘¢ The thing that hath been, it is that that shall 
be: and that which is done is that which 
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