EAGLES AND AKT. 249 



bles his own, that the creature in reality becomes most near 

 to him but as it typifies some higher attribute of his com- 

 pounded being ! Thus he sees that the monkey is not really 

 so near to him as the elephant, the lion or the Eagle while, 

 if he were only an organized unit, as a crude philosophy de- 

 fines him, this monkey would be nearest. Mere organiza- 

 tion cannot define relations to a triune being, such as his 

 though it might to the physical unit. 



But he is more fearfully and wonderfully made this ma- 

 terial form, first vitalized by a plastic spirit in common with 

 the earth and all her creatures, holds within that spirit, as air 

 is held in water, a soul, in common with angelic being, which 

 illuminates and warms with love and wisdom the grosser ele- 

 ment. Thus his mother shows him that the apparent ap- 

 proximation is not the real while the Pedant, reasoning 

 through books concerning her " vestiges," finds only the ap- 

 parent, and stops there ! 



The Artist can be deceived by no vain juggle of the words 

 of a dead human learning; the truth that has made him 

 strong is a vital truth, and its words are alive. They teach 

 him to see in the lion a distinct antitype of magnanimous 

 courage, and in the type, the heroic man, he traces the real 

 approximation through physiognomy, in a resemblance ap- 

 parent, not alone in the features of the face, but in the huge 

 chest, the heavy limbs, the gentleness of bearing in repose, 

 and terrible fierceness when aroused. 



The elephant he sees to be the antitype of judgment and 

 sagacity, and in the type, the philosopher and sage, he traces 

 the reposeful heaviness of feature and limbs, the simplicity 

 and harmlessness of temper, the calm, bright eye and move- 

 less will, which belong to that creature. The monkey he 

 sees to be only the antitype of that most humble faculty, im- 

 itation ; and in the type, the clown or idiot, he sees all the 

 monkey in meanness of feature and of nature! The Artist 

 smiles to think that this creature can yet be nearer to the an- 



