KINSHIP WITH THE ARTS 33 



is that the creatures of nature are even 

 more beautiful, in some cases more 

 brilliant, in others more delicately neutral, 

 than the creatures of man. Undoubtedly, 

 to those who have eyes to see and dili- 

 gence to seek. Nature will show the 

 realities. Most of them are born in the 

 neighbourhood of lake or stream ; some 

 among the reeds, others in the bushes or 

 the overhanging trees, a few on the bed 

 of the water ; all of them, as far as one 

 can perceive, though shrikes and swallows 

 do not disdain them, are designed to be 

 food for trout. 



Beautiful we have called them and 

 their images. Why are these things 

 beautiful ? That is a question in the 

 philosophy of art ; and the answer has 

 truth not for the angler only but also for 

 every man or woman who has a sensibility 

 which gives the word beautiful a meaning. 

 There is not anything which is beautiful 

 in itself. A thing of beauty derives its 

 characteristic quality from its relation 

 to consciousness, a present desire or a 



