NATURE'S RECONCILING POWER. 251 



glorious birds and flowers, and yet more brilliant insects, 

 do not therein display (in common with children and unedu- 

 cated people) a more accurate perception of the beautiful than 

 that exhibited by people of greater cultivation and artificial 

 refinement. 



Those who consider themselves of this select number are 

 accustomed, at all events, to circumscribe taste, as regards 

 colouring, within much stricter limits than those imposed on 

 her by her true model and mistress, Dame Nature. 



For certain of our commixtures, such as blue or brown and 

 orange, black and scarlet, black and yellow, Nature, it is true, 

 has afforded us many patterns (in flowers and wings of butter- 

 flies) ; but just as often, and as if to show that she can do 

 all things well, she brings together opposing colours which, 

 though in our hands considered to fall out most abominably, 

 are made under her authority perfectly to agree. 



Blue and green, red and yellow, neither quarrel with each 

 other nor are quarrelled with in a hyacinth, a tulip, a par- 

 rot's Or an insect's wing, objects to which they never give an 

 air of tawdriness, all such being entirely removed by their ex- 

 quisite finish and comparatively small size ; the apportionment 

 of ornament in an inverse ratio to bulk being, as before no- 

 ticed, a general rule in the decorative department of nature. 

 How greatly, with respect to colouring, as well as elegance of 

 fabric, is the clothing of the larger animals surpassed by that of 

 the feathered creation ! This, with a few exceptions, is eclipsed 



