Form and Color in Nature. 257 



As for the vegetable kingdom, little more needs to be 

 said than has already been stated. The geological record 

 and the world before us show a systematic development of 

 certain forms from the simple to the complex, the origin, 

 growth, culmination, and decline of races, in accordance 

 with the conditions to which they were at the period ex- 

 posed. A certain degree of sensation in the vegetable king- 

 dom is beyond question, but sense-perception therein we 

 can hardly believe to exist. Sensibility to touch and sensi- 

 bility to light can not be doubted ; but there is no evidence 

 indicating anything in the nature of sight, and we can not 

 therefore predicate any reflex action in the acquirement of 

 color from this source. 



I do not intend to poach upon the territory of the lect- 

 urer upon painting, but it is clearly within my province 

 to touch at least upon the material which the painter has 

 to handle, and to allude to its reaction upon the human 

 being. I have not a shadow of a doubt that the same omni- 

 present, unfaltering, and irresistible power that power 

 which is to any force that we can define, as a universe to an 

 atom which is responsible for the development which we see 

 throughout the whole of nature outside of the human race, 

 is responsible for the development of that race itself. I can 

 not conceive of two conflicting primary powers in the uni- 

 verse ; two Kings of Brentford sitting on one throne. 



It seems to me that while it is quite possible that any one 

 of the senses may be developed to a higher degree in some 

 of the lower animals as, for instance, the sense of smell in 

 dogs, the sense, whatever it may be, which enables carrier 

 pigeons to reach their homes in a few hours after they 

 have been carried several hundred miles in a closed basket 

 there can be no doubt that all the senses combined have 

 so far found their highest development in man. Yet in 

 man we find this development must be characterized by de- 

 grees, and in some it has been checked at an early stage. 

 Sometimes this is simply temporary and accidental, some- 

 times it appears to be functional. It is well known what 

 a wide range of capacity exists in relation to the appreci- 

 ation of sound. So in a measure in relation to form, much 

 more in relation to color. We all know those who can not 

 discriminate between certain colors which to us have the 

 widest distinction. In some instances the power of per- 

 ception in these could doubtless be educated. In others 

 there seems a numbness of nerve which must forever stand 



