REGARDED AS A MASS. 117 



of birds, the furs of beasts, the bright scales of fishes, the 

 painted wings of butterflies and beetles, the rich colours and 

 spotted lustre of many tribes of insects. 



There are parts also of animals ornamental, and the 

 properties by which they are so, not subservient, that we 

 know of, to any other purpose. The irides of most ani- 

 mals are very beautiful, without conducing at all, by their 

 beauty, to the perfection of vision ; and nature could in no 

 part have employed her pencil to so much advantage, be- 

 cause no part presents itself so conspicuously to the ob- 

 server, or communicates so great an effect to the whole as- 

 pect. 



In plants, especially in the flowers of plants, the princi- 

 ple of beauty holds a still more considerable place in their 

 composition ; is still more confessed than in animals. Why, 

 for one instance out of a thousand, does the corolla of 

 the tulip when advanced to its size and maturity, change 

 its colour 1 The purposes, so far as we can see, of vegeta- 

 ble nutrition, might have been carried on as well by con- 

 tinuing green. Or, if this could not be, consistently with 

 the progress of vegetable life, why break into such a varie- 

 ty of colours ? This is no proper effect of age, or of declen- 

 sion in the ascent of the sap ; for that, like the autumnal 

 tints, would have produced one colour in one leaf, with 

 marks of fading a.nd withering. It seems a lame account 

 to call it, as it has been called, a disease of the plant. Is 

 it not more probable, that this property, which is indepen- 

 dent, as it should seem, of the wants and utilities of the 

 plant, was calculated for beauty, intended for display 1 



A ground, I know, of objection, has been taken against 

 this whole topic of argument, namely, that there is no such 

 thing as beauty at all : in other words, that whatever is 

 useful and familiar comes of course to be thought beauti- 

 ful ; and that things appear to be so, only by their alliance 

 with these qualities. Our idea of beauty is capable of be- 

 ing so modified by habit, by fashion, by the experience of 

 advantage or pleasure, and by associations arising out of ^ 

 that experience, that a question has been made whether it 

 be not altogether generated by these causes, or would have 

 any proper existence without them. It seems, however a 

 carrying of the conclusion too far, to deny the existence of 

 the principle, viz. a native capacity of perceiving beauty, 

 on account of the influence, or the varieties proceeding 

 from that influence, to which it is subject ; seeing that prin- 

 L 2 



