The Birds’ Calendar 
joint—as old as Adam, nay, older, for it was in 
the machinery of the megatherium, in his pre- 
Adamic, paleozoic peregrinations. The ‘‘ ball 
and socket ’’ is another contribution of the ani- 
mal frame to the mechanical service of man ; 
and microscopic and telescopic science finds its 
lens in the eyeball. As Dryden says: 
** By viewing nature, nature’s handmaid, art, 
Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow ; 
Thus fishes first to shipping did impart, 
Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow.” 
The hollow columnar structure, as combining 
the greatest strength and lightness, finds its pro- 
totype in the bone, while the frieze of the Cor- 
inthian column was suggested by seeing acanthus 
leaves growing around a vase. And as for sculpt- 
ure and painting, they are most essentially imi- 
tative, discriminatingly reproductive of Nature’s 
examples. Some one has said that it requires 
more skill to make a good quotation than todo 
original thinking—which, if true, is very flatter- 
ing to mankind, who have been quoting from 
Nature steadily for six thousand years. And 
the famous wise man of antiquity has declared, 
‘« The thing that hath been, it is that that shall 
be: and that which is done is that which 
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