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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