" INVITATION 



fish upon the baited hook! The minute perfection 

 of everything in nature must tempt our jaded 

 sense of wonder. Just as every atom of dust on a 

 moth's wing is a feather of exquisite form and 

 every variety of moth feather somewhat different, 

 so the scales of any fish that we scrape off 

 without thought are each a masterpiece of 

 workmanship. 



Colours which most people think of as red, 

 blue, yellow are infinite. There is no end to the 

 appreciable shades of any one colour, and every 

 turn changes it to something no less perfect; 

 still less is there a limit to the combination of 

 colours. 



Form appeals in some subconscious way to our 

 reasoning faculties, while colour seems to touch 

 something deeper and more primitive, like a note 

 of music when once we have become sensitive to 

 its influence. Leave one side the microscope of 

 the scientist and the exact observation of a natu- 

 ralist, and the general impression of the shapes 

 and colours of fish and weed must hold the atten- 

 tion of one who is not dead to all sensuous and 

 intellectual appeal. 



And yet it is possible for visitors to go to the 

 Sea Gardens, record rapidly the fact that they 

 have seen the bottom of the sea and that seaweed 

 grows there and fish swim, who yearn immediately 

 for their chairs around the card table, deploring 



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