36 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts, and Let'.ers. 



ia nature, forms in'his mind a general conception of his proposed 

 subject, selects, arranges, modifies, and refers all to the standard 

 in his mind, which is his ideal of beauty, or grace, or power, or 

 whatever quality he may require, and so forms a perfect whole, 

 based indeed on nature, conforming to it, but which is not nature, 

 not imitation, not reproduction, but, as far as it is art at all, is his 

 creatio7i. Intimately concerned in this creation is the principle 

 we call taste. Taste is the power of perception of those qualities, 

 which, inhering in thoughts and things, render them fit subjects 

 for art. This taste is not judgment, we must carefully avoid this 

 notion, but by it the mind affirms directly and positively. It is 

 to the mind in regard to qualities in truths, what the bodily senses 

 are in regard to sensible qualities of material things, such as flav- 

 ors, odors, and the like. 



We pronounce as positively and independently of judgment, 

 concerning the beauty of a flower, the grace of a musical melody, 

 or the grandeur of a thought, as concerning the sweetness of su- 

 gar, or the sourness of vinegar. 



To all it is not given to perceive these qualities in the same 

 variety, and with equal accuracy; just as we may vary in per- 

 ceiving sensible qualities. Yet, these qualities remain, and do not 

 vary ; sweet is sweet, and sour is sour ; and hence, from the un- 

 varying nature of these qualities, arises truth or untruth in the 

 expression of them. Hence, we have truth of beauty, of humor, 

 of power, or of any other element of art. 



Possessed with this thought, hear Schiller — 



The truth -which had for Centuries to wait, 

 The truth which reason had grown old to find, 



Lay in the symbol of the /azr and great, 

 Felt from the first by every child-like mind. 



T'was virtue's beauty made her honored so : 

 A finer instinct shrunk back, when it saw, 



The ugliness of sin, ere Solon made the law, 

 Forcing the plant unwillingly to grow. 



Long ere the thinker's intellect severe 



The notion of eternal space could win, 

 Whoever gazed up at yon starry sphere, 



That did not feel it prophesied within ! 



