Miscellanies. 387 



cff establishing this department in all the public seminaries In this 

 Union. The elements of the graphic art were furnished to man 

 by his maker, and consequently if we cultivate the imitative arts, 

 we obey a natural law. Man, in his primitive state, surrounded by 

 innumerable and dissimilar forms, and possessing only a limited lan- 

 guage, soon found that he vi?as unable fully to pourtray the vivid im- 

 pressions made on his faculties ; but by availing himself of the 

 straight and curve line, he was able to represent every thing, living 

 or material. Thus, man, as by a new creation, multiplies resem- 

 blances of all he sees or admires on the globe, and joyfully discovers 

 that with two lines he can give apparent hfe and animation. If any 

 acquirement is capable of elevating die character of man, or of making 

 him proud of his profession, it is that, which by such simple means, 

 can produce such effects. 



JVatural History, Botany, Mineralogy, the art of writing, music 

 and many other arts cannot, at this day, be taught, successfully, with- 

 out borrowing the two lines ofJYature. Even mathematics, in their 

 best and most useful applications, would be unintelligible without a 

 previous knowledge and use of the straight and curve line. In delin- 

 eating, in circumscribed space, the forms, position and dimensions of 

 bodies ; in linear perspective ; in descriptive geometry ; in optics, 

 Stc, the general properties of lines and angles are employed ; and in 

 surgery thousands are saved by an exact knowledge of anatomy, en- 

 lightened by correct drawings of every part of the complicated struc- 

 ture of our frame. If it were possible to obliterate from the memory 

 of man, all he has acquired, or invented by his graphic powers, we 

 should bring him back to the age of ignorance and barbarism. While, 

 therefore, contempladng the magnificent and beautiful works of the 

 creator, let us be thankful for the enjoyments which they thus afford, 

 especially by the aid of an art, which has furnished such proofs of 

 the genius of man, and operated both as a cause and effect of his 

 civilization. Can we then any longer give these arts the slighting 

 name of an accomplishment'? 



What models shall we select, to improve our graphic faculties, and 

 to form our taste? Two distinct classes of objects naturally present 

 themselves to us; regular and irregular. Among the many regular 

 forms, the figure o? man stands the most conspicuous, for beauty and 

 symmetry and for intellectual expression. In the attempt to delineate 

 such a difficult subject, correct principles and well selected rules will 

 enable the pupil to establish a perfect harmony betwixt the eye and 



