252 Natural Theology. 



and those products most valuable for food, raiment, 

 and shelter. 



But it is not alone the physical welfare of man, 

 and that pure intellect which is satisfied with weight 

 and measure and established relation, that have been 

 provided for, in constituting the elements and the 

 varied objects in the world. There has been given 

 to man an emotional nature, one manifestation of 

 which is the love of the beautiful. And for the 

 gratification of this love there has been made most 

 ample and special provision. We have made some 

 reference to this fact in the subjects already treated 

 of For we can draw no dividing lines in the works 

 of nature that shall completely separate one provi- 

 sion from another. Beauty and utility are in gene- 

 ral so interwoven, that while we speak of one, the 

 other can never be entirely ignored. But the pro- 

 vision for man, as a lover of the beautiful, is as 

 ample and as striking as any other that has been 

 made. Nature is to him the cosmos revealing a 

 mind and speaking to the mind in its varied lan- 

 guage of order, proportion, and grandeur, thus ever, 

 awakening the emotions of beauty and sublimity. 

 The faculty or constitution of the mind by which 

 we perceive these qualities and enjoy these emo- 

 tions of beauty and sublimity, is Taste. To aid in 

 gratifying this faculty we have the fine arts, which 

 are the creations of genius to supply the demands of 

 Taste. But genius would be powerless without the 

 patterns which the Great Master has given in the 

 things he has created. As that is true science 



