THE FACT OF BEAUTY 273 



that with a few exceptions (which are too difficult for us) 

 the lines of living creatures are such that they give us 

 aesthetic pleasure. This is as true of the microscopic shells 

 of Foraminifera and Radiolarians — which are joys for ever 

 — as of the lines of the crane and of the cedar of Lebanon. 

 It is as true of the carefully hidden down-feathers of the 

 eagle as of the tail of the peacock. It is as true of the 

 internal architecture of a sea-urchin's spine as of the external 

 moulding of a tiger. It is as true of the minute chiselling 

 of many a moth's egg-shell as of the sweeping lines of an 

 Iguanodon. Is there no significance in the omnipresence 

 of these pleasing lines ? 



The second element in organic beauty is colour, which 

 so often emphasises and enhances the value of form. It 

 seems that all wild animals and plants, living an independent 

 and healthy life and in their natural surroundings, are 

 beautiful in colour, that is to say, aesthetically pleasing. The 

 combinations in parrots, humming-birds, birds of Paradise, 

 coral-reef fishes, butterflies, orchids, and the like are often 

 daring, but they are never wrong. That is to say, when 

 we look at natural schemes of colour we are always pleased, 

 which means, to begin with, that the chemical processes 

 set up in our retina are harmonious. It may be remarked 

 that some skin-diseases involve vivid colours, and that they 

 displease us, — partly perhaps because associations make us 

 feel them uglier than they are, but partly because they are 

 ugly, being expressions of disharmonious vital processes, 

 non-viable failures which Nature scarce troubles to look at, 

 but casts at once as rubbish to the void. The coloration of 

 a scallop shell, of a peacock's feather, of a poppy's petal, 

 and so forth, depends on the orderly chemical processes of 

 a healthy life, and it is perhaps for this reason primarily 



