RELATION OF QUANTITY TO ESTHETIC SENTIMENT. 413 



with the progressive series already noticed : 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, &c. But 

 the number of threads in one set of spirals, say that running from 

 right to left, differs from that of the other running from left to right, 

 yet the two stand in a remarkable relation, for the number in the 

 second set is always one or other of the two contiguous ones in the 

 above scale. If the number in the first be 5, then that in the other 

 will be either 3 or 8. If the one be 13, the other will be 8 or 21, &c. 



We have taken the cone of the fir as an illustration of this spiral 

 and numerical arrangement, because this is one of the instances in 

 which it is most apparent ; but it has been conclusively shown that 

 the same spiral arrangement regulates all the leafy appendages of the 

 stem, and with the same results as to numbers. 



These facts might be used with great effect to show the evidences 

 of order and design, and of wisdom, and power in creation ; but I 

 propose to use them for the present for quite another purpose, though 

 leading to the same conclusion of adoring views of God, who in lofty 

 wisdom planned all things in the beginning, and with special care 

 adapted all things to specified ends. We need not enter into the discus- 

 sion of what beauty consists in ; but appealing to the universal 

 sensation of pleasure with which the eye reposes upon the outlines of 

 beautiful forms, and the orders and variety of arrangements, I would 

 briefly point out the special connection of the phenomena of beauty 

 with the laws of quantity above stated. Whence arises that harmony 

 of visual effect that strikes us in the wildest natural landscape as 

 compared with the effect of an artificial plantation ? Not from the har- 

 mony of colours, for this you may find in the artificial plantation as 

 well as in the natural landscape. Not from the absence of regularity, 

 for whatever is irregular throughout produces the feeling of deformity 

 rather than of beauty. There is regularity in every form, yet not 

 that regularity which impresses the mind simply with a sense of me- 

 chanism. Every where you have rectilinear figures, but these in con- 

 nection with manifold curvilinear combinations, as in the case of the fir 

 cone already noticed. In each form we have a regular law of num- 

 bers regulating all the appendages of the stem and influencing its 

 waving outline. No where is there sameness. Every where is there 

 regularity. From the leaves of the overhanging giant of the forest, 

 down to the minute petals of the fringed daisy, every proportion and 

 recurrence is specifically arranged, and admits of an arithmetical or 

 mathematical expression. 



