BEAUTY IN NATURE. 229 



gratifies their sense of wealth and pride. There is a cer- 

 tain charm in the ornate finish of dressed grounds that 

 affects all persons with pleasure when it is viewed in the 

 town or in its suburbs ; but it clashes with the simplicity 

 of a genuine country scene. 



Much of the beauty we perceive iq nature delights the 

 eye' by promising gratification to some other sense, espe- 

 cially if it is blended with pleasing forms and colors. 

 The sight of a golden apple, or peach with cheeks of 

 crimson and purple, would delight the eye, even if we did 

 not associate these fruits with their gratefulness to the 

 palate. But their fitness to afford this pleasant gratifica- 

 tion heightens their beauty ; so that it would be difficult 

 to determine, when vfe look upon a peach-tree laden with 

 its highly colored fruit, whether the sight or some other 

 sense is the most agreeably affected. When passing 

 through shrubbery, our eyes are attracted by the scarlet 

 berries of the woody nightshade, and the purple clusters 

 hanging from the grapevine. Our acquaintance with the 

 nauseous qualities of the one and the sweetness of the 

 other causes us to look upon the grapes with a keener sensa- 

 tion of their beauty, though the berries of the nightshade 

 surpass them in elegance of form and brilliancy of color. 



Nature has- distributed over her productions a certain 

 amount of material beauty, as a seasoning to our moral 

 enjoyments. She has thus instituted a bond between our 

 physical sensations and our moral sentiments. Those, 

 objects which are beautiful to the eye, without the agency 

 of thought, may be said to shine, like the sun, with un- 

 borrowed light. But other classes of objects, that possess 

 the power of awakening pleasant emotions by suggestion, 

 may be said to borrow their light, not like the moon from 

 a single object, but from an infinite number of ideas and 

 images which are reflected back upon the mind. Nature 

 has painted the cheeks of an innocent child with the hues 



