RELATION OF QUANTITY TO ESTHETIC SENTIMENT. 409 



in its modern centuries by the isolation of Spain, France, Denmark,, 

 and the Scandinavian Peninsula, we cannot fail to perceive in this a 

 key to some of the contrasting elements of fusion already noticeable 

 among the people of European descent throughout the American con- 

 tinent. May we not further draw from this important inferences as 

 to the causes of those homogeneous characteristics noticeable among^ 

 the whole aboriginal tribes of the new world, to which an undue 

 importance has been attached by American ethnologists, from their 

 supposed bearing on the great question of human origin and descent 

 from one or more centres of creation. 



ON THE RELATION OF QUANTITY TO THE ESTHETIC 

 SENTIMENT. 



BY THE REV. DAVID INGLIS, M.A. 



Bead before the Canadian Institute, March 6th, 1858. 



In compliance with the invitation of the Council for communications 

 from the members at large, I venture to submit to the Canadian 

 Institute a few remarks on the relation of Quantity to the .Esthetic 

 Sentiment, drawing the illustrations mainly from the vegetable kingdom j 

 chiefly with the view of inviting our consideration to a subject which 

 has recently rewarded the study of scientific observers by results of 

 great interest and value. 



Numbers have a wondrous significance in every department of 

 nature ; and though the sensation of beauty may be without effort on 

 our part, nevertheless the element of numbers enters largely into 

 those arrangements, recurrences, and proportions which, are so essen- 

 tial to all the forms that beauty loves. The eye is delighted with 

 the foliage of one of our forest trees, clothed in the freshness of its 

 early summer tints. A careless gazer may see no arrangement in the 

 tree, but a shapeless mass of umbrageous beauty. A more careful 

 observer discovers that the several parts are disposed and arranged by 

 certain laws serving special ends, and that the forms, colors, and 

 numbers are all designed and adjusted upon great and wise principles.. 



VOL. III. BB 



