298 AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 



general reference to the subject of natural mechanism, as 

 affording, or being adapted to afford, copies for the mechanism 

 of art. It has been observed* of plants, that "in the course 

 of ages in which they have been before the sight and atten- 

 tion of mankind, they must have frequently led them to a 

 perception of organizing skill, and of the effect of such com- 

 bined mechanism, and to many mechanical imitations of it. 

 Every plant is a machine, and may have suggested ideas of 

 construction and arrangement and serviceable mechanisms by 

 which society has been often benefited and adorned." 



This to a certain degree must be admitted ; but perhaps the 

 suggestive influence of the vegetable world has been much 

 less exercised through its interior mechanisms of organization 

 than through its external forms of beauty. Of the powerful 

 effect of these latter on all objects of decorative art none can 

 doubt ; nor are examples wanting, from the Corinthian capital 

 supposed copy of acanthus foliage embracing a basket and 

 the Gothic arch and column, obvious imitations of the trunks 

 and interlacing boughs of the lofty avenue, down to the classic 

 vase, cup, urn, and lamp, moulded, probably, in ancient as 

 in modern times, from patterns set by Nature in flower, fruit, 

 leaf, and capsule ; to which may be added an infinite variety 

 of elegant design in fabrics, furniture, and attire, sprung from 

 minds which would never have conceived them but for notions 

 of grace and beauty imbibed, unconsciously, from the contem- 



* By Sharon Turner. 



