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predict, and on the other, by the phenomena of human action and caprice, 

 which elude all possibility of scientific mensuration. 



I know, indeed, — and I notice it, not because it will enter into consideration 

 this evening, but because it would be disingenuous if I were to pretend to be 

 ignorant of the fact ; — I know it has been argued, that man himself, not only 

 in his lower and material organisation, but even in the more subtle and im- 

 palpable action of his reason, his imagination, and his will, is equally the 

 unconscious subject of the same immutable law which he recognises in external 

 nature ; that he is no more than a passive and predestinated instrument, no 

 more than one inert link, in the mechanical chain of cause and effect, which 

 unites the past to the future in the sequence of the operations of nature. 

 T will pass by the wide fiylcl for discussion which this strange philosophy opens 

 to our view ; because it is sufficient for our purpose this evening to assume, 

 that, even were the doctrine of predestination established, were it proven that 

 free will in man is a chimera, and the creative powers of his imagination no 

 more than a delusion, still the laws of human action, what we are content to 

 call his power of choice, his free will, are so entirely different from and inde- 

 pendent of the natural laws of growth and change, that, as compared with the 

 latter, we may logically consider man as possessed of an inherent power of 

 action, independent of mechanical law. And we recognise this power, not only 

 as modifying his own growth and development, but still more clearly in the 

 action of man upon the world which he inhabits, in the creations of his hand 

 and his brain. I have said the tree grows in obedience to mechanical law. 

 Given its origin, and the circumstances surrounding it, and it must of necessity 

 have attained its own particular form and stature and character ; that indi- 

 vidual one and none other. But the house does not grow in obedience to any 

 such law. It was not in compliance with any such law that there are so many 

 windows in the roof above me, instead of six or seven or any other number. 

 That particular number, and so all the special proportions of this building, 

 were the result of choice and design on the part of the architect, who was free 

 to select or reject as he pleased. And so it is that when we pass from the 

 operations of nature to the works of man, we pass from the world of nature 

 into the world of Art ; for Art is a term which embraces every modification 

 in the forms of nature which has been achieved by the intelligence, the 

 imagination, the memory, the creative power, the imitative ability, the skilful 

 ingenuity of man. 



What is it, then, which we mean by Art 1 It is not the mere mechanical 

 combination of matter into new forms, designed for new uses, with which Art 

 deals. Art takes no cognizance of the principles of structure, or the nature of 

 materials, or the composition of the elements which it uses as a language in 

 which to convey its ideas. Art deals only with the images produced, in respect 

 to their beauty or their ugliness ; that is to say, in respect to the effect which 

 such images have upon the mind of man ; upon that quality of his mind which 

 receives jDleasure from the perception of beaiity, and pain from the presence of 

 the opposite. And this feeling of pain or pleasure is evoked, not only by the 

 manifestation of beauty or the contrary in material form, but from ideas which 

 have a less material embodiment. It is the images which arise in or are 

 impressed on the mind, in respect to their beaiity or the reverse, which, and 

 which alone, are within the realm of Art. 



Although Art takes no cognizance of the laws of nature, even when 

 expressing itself in materials subject to those laws, yet it is limited and con- 

 trolled by them. For example : if you build a house, you must build it in 

 compliance with the law of gravity operating on your materials, or it will 

 cease to be a house ; it will tumble down. If you paint a picture you must 

 use pigments and colours which will not undergo chemical change, or your 



