ON THE BEAUTY OF NATURE. 269 
REMARKS UPON THE FOREGOING PAPER 
BY 
THE REVEREND W. ARTHUR. 
Lorp GrimtHorre does good service in pressing the argument 
from beauty to design indicated in his vigorous work on the Origin 
of the Laws of Nature. That argument is one that will grow of 
itself, and will be found to have broad bases and manifold con- 
nexions, 
Particular attention should be given to the answer which Lord 
Grimthorpe reports as that made to him by ‘one of the most 
eminent philosophical writers of the age.” This philosopher says : 
“Beauty is merely a question of habit and fashion ; there is no 
such thing as absolute beauty, and therefore Nature has done 
nothing for it.” The conclusion, namely, that Nature has done 
nothing for beauty is so absurd that it could not be drawn from any 
properly formulated premises, or even tacked on to them. With 
that conclusion the assertion which in the apparent premises stands 
immediately before it has nothing to do. It may be quite true that 
there is no absolute beauty, and yet all relative beauty may be 
directly due to Nature; just as it may be true that there is no 
absolute motion, and yet all relative motion is due to Nature. The 
other assertion in the premises, that beauty is merely a question of 
habit and fashion, is itself merely a begging of the question. It 
is not true ; beauty is more than a question of habit and fashion. 
But even if it were true, it would not prove that Nature had ‘ done 
nothing for it.” Dress is clearly a matter of habit and fashion, yet 
Nature has done something for it by giving, on the one hand, wool, 
cotton, silk, and hides, and on the other hand the desire and ability 
to make clothes, joined with the twofold appreciation of utility and 
beauty. 
Tn respect of dress, however, social considerations outweigh those 
of beauty ; that is, fashion overrules taste, and dictates either 
permanent or transient habit—the usage of the caste in India fixing 
for ages the form of dress which will be most respectable, as the fiat 
of some milliner in Paris fixes for a season what will be most in 
vogue. But it is equally vain to look for the approved pattern in 
nose-jewels, or in crinoline, apart from a mind to design, or a power 
to mould. But to regard beauty in dress, or in any production of 
man, as if it were the whole of beauty, is the philosophy of the 
workshop. 
