nature's models. 53 



reflective reader, we are unwilling that he should rob 

 us of the pleasure of making it : as enough remains for 

 him, and what we state may lead the unaccustomed to 

 reflection) — how superior the models which we find 

 in nature, are to those of human contrivance. We 

 study the latter ; we soon find out all their principles ; 

 and there, in so far as we are concerned, instruction, 

 and with that mental pleasure, ends, so that, be it 

 the steam engine, the chronometer, or any other chef 

 cVosuvre of science and art combined, the mental 

 improvement and pleasure are soon at an end ; and 

 we have nothing but the cold consideration of money 

 value, and utility, which, however necessary to our 

 bodily existence and comfort, is always blight and 

 mildew to the mind when uppermost there. Or, if 

 we carry our observation further, we find faults and 

 imperfections which we cannot remedy, and these 

 spoil our enjoyment. 



But when nature is the model, we find no fault or 

 imperfection, and we never can exhaust the informa- 

 tion which it affords. The Macedonian conqueror is 

 said to have wept when the world was won ; but if 

 he had followed out the path of his tutor the Stagyrite, 

 so far as to study the mechanism of the head and 

 neck of a bird, he would have found, in that single 

 specimen, a world of wisdom which he never could 

 have conquered. There is not a projection or a hol- 

 low in all their curiously-shaped bones, or a tube, or 

 membrane, or a fibre, in all the soft parts with which 

 they are invested, but has its use, and is more 

 beautifully adapted to that use, and fashioned with 

 more perfect economy, than the most finished produc- 

 tion of human skill. The motions which the point of 

 the human finger can perform are almost infinite to 

 our arithmetic, but they are nothing compared to 



