58 NATURAL HISTORY 



crushed and despised in the hurry of this utilitarian 

 age. It has too often been neglected by the scholar, 

 and mourned over as a vile weed of depravity by 

 the Christian. 



The pleasures of this faculty are to the individual 

 ever fresh and delicious. But while every emotion 

 of beauty thrills the soul with delight, it rolls in 

 hurrying ripples, and leaves only for its possessor 

 conscious evidence of its value and elevating power. 

 There is, therefore, in respect to this faculty, an 

 individual growth and revenue of pleasure, which 

 no one can calculate for another. "We can take no 

 inventory of these higher riches, though in respect 

 to them, men undoubtedly differ more than they do 

 in material wealth. But there is for the race an 

 outward expression of the power of Taste, and a 

 permanent record of its progress, in the Fine Arts. 

 If they are not the creations of Taste, they are, some 

 of them at least, the creations of Genius to supply 

 her demand ; and the highest aim of Genius is but 

 to receive her approbation. To the bidding of this 

 goddess he yields the tribute of all his powers, and 

 plumes his wings for his highest flights with the de- 



