67 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Beauty 



qu 

 th 



The fascination of the weird and fre- 

 uently wonderfully impressive scenery of 

 the region formerly submerged beneath the 

 waters of Lake Lahontan, is enhanced, at 

 least to the geologist, by the fact that there 

 is yet an unsolved mystery connected with 

 the tufa deposits that start out as strange, 

 gigantic forms from the desert haze, as one 

 slowly traverses those bitter, alkaline lands. 

 RUSSELL Lakes of North America, ch. 6, 

 p. 111. (G. & Co., 1895.) 



332. BEAUTY IN NATURE OBJECTIVE 



Utility Might Dispense with the Beautiful 

 Herculean efforts have been made by mod- 

 ern evolutionists to eliminate altogether the 

 idea of beauty from nature, by theories of 

 sexual selection and the like, and to per- 

 suade us that beauty is merely utility in 

 disguise, and even then only an accidental 

 coincidence between our perceptions and 

 certain external things. But in no part 

 of their argument have they more signally 

 failed in accounting for the observed facts, 

 and in no part have they more seriously 

 outraged the common sense and natural 

 taste of men. In point of fact, we have 

 here one of those great correlations belong- 

 ing to the unity of nature that indis- 

 soluble connection which has been estab- 

 lished between the senses and the esthetic 

 sentiments of man and certain things in the 

 external world. But there is more in beauty 

 than this merely anthropological relation. 

 Certain forms, for example, adopted in the 

 skeletons of the lower animals are necessa- 

 rily beautiful because of their geometrical 

 proportions. Certain styles of coloring are 

 necessarily beautiful because of harmonies 

 and contrasts which depend on the essen- 

 tial properties of the waves of light. 

 Beauty is thus in a great measure inde- 

 pendent of the taste of the spectator. It is 

 also independent of mere utility, since, even 

 if we admit that all these combinations of 

 forms, motions, and colors which we call 

 beautiful are also useful, it is easy to per- 

 ceive that the end could often be attained 

 without the beauty. DAWSON Facts and 

 Fancies in Modern Science, lect. 5, p. 198. 

 (A. B. P. S.) 



333. BEAUTY, NATURAL, MOLDS NA- 

 TION Scenery of Greece Intimate Association 

 of Land and Sea. We must not forget that 

 Grecian scenery presents the peculiar charm 

 of an intimate association of land and sea, 

 of shores adorned with vegetation, or pic- 

 turesquely girt round by rocks gleaming in 

 the light of aerial tints, and of an ocean 

 beautiful in the play of the ever-changing 

 brightness of its deep-toned moving waves. 

 Altho to other nations, sea and land, in the 

 different pursuits of life to which they give 

 rise, appeared as two separate spheres of 

 nature, the Greeks not only those who in- 

 habited the islands, but also those occupying 

 the southern portion of the continent en- 

 joyed, almost everywhere, the aspect of the 

 richness and sublime grandeur imparted to 



the scenery by the contact and mutual in- 

 fluence of the two elements. HUMBOLDT 

 Cosmos, vol. ii, pt. i, p. 25. (H., 1897.) 



334. BEAUTY NOT MATCHED BY IN- 

 TELLECT Naturalist Tires of the Exquisite 

 Humming-bird. The longer he [the nat- 

 uralist] observes any one species or indi- 

 vidual, the more does he find in it to reward 

 his attention; this is not the case, however, 

 with humming-birds, which possess the avian 

 body, but do not rank mentally- with birds. 

 The pleasure one takes in their beauty soon 

 evaporates, and is succeeded by no fresh in- 

 terest, so monotonous and mechanical are 

 all their actions; and we accordingly find 

 that those who are most familiar with them 

 from personal observation have very little 

 to say about them. A score of humming- 

 birds, of as many distinct species, are less 

 to the student of habits than one little 

 brown-plumaged bird haunting his garden 

 or the rush-bed of a neighboring stream; 

 and, doubtless, for a reason similar to that 

 which makes a lovely human face unin- 

 formed by intellect seem less permanently 

 attractive than many a homelier counte- 

 nance. HUDSON Naturalist in La Plata, ch. 

 16, p. 211. (C. & H., 1895.) 



335. BEAUTY OF CREVASSES IN 

 GLACIERS Color Rivals Blue of Ocean 

 Depths. The walls of crevasses in neVe" re- 

 gions are of the most exquisite turquoise 

 blue, the color deepening below the surface 

 until it seems almost black. The only color 

 in nature that rivals the blue of glacial ice 

 is seen when one looks down into the un- 

 fathomable sea. The sides of crevasses are 

 frequently hung with icicles, forming rank 

 on rank of glittering pendants, and fretted 

 and embossed in the most beautiful manner 

 with snow-wreaths, and partially roofed 

 with curtain-like cornices of snow. These 

 details are wrought in silvery white, or in 

 innumerable shades of blue with sugges- 

 tions of emerald tints. When the sunlight 

 enters the great chasms, their walls seem 

 incrusted with iridescent jewels. The still 

 waters with which many of the gulfs are 

 partially filled reflect every detail of their 

 crystal walls and make their depth seem 

 infinite. No dream of fairy caverns ever 

 exceeded the beauty of these mysterious 

 crypts of the vast cathedral-like amphi- 

 theaters of the silent mountains. RUSSELL 

 Glaciers of North America, int., p. 8. (G. 

 & Co., 1897.) 



336. BEAUTY OF NATURE SECOND- 

 ARY IN GREEK POETRY We find the 

 most attractive scenes of nature introduced 

 in the Homeric songs merely as secondary 

 adjuncts. "The shepherd rejoices in the 

 stillness of night, in the purity of the sky, 

 and in the starry radiance of the vault of 

 heaven; he hears from afar the rush of the 

 mountain torrent, as it pursues its foaming 

 course swollen with the trunks of oaks that 

 have been borne along by its turbid waters " 



