EAGLES AND ART. 
249 
bles his own, that the creature in reality becomes most near 
to him — but as it typifies some higher attribute of his com- 
pounded being ! Thus he sees that the monkey is not really 
so near to him as the elephant, the lion or the Eagle — while, 
if he were only an organized unit, as a crude philosophy de- 
fines him, this monkey would be nearest. Mere organiza- 
tion cannot define relations to a triune being, such as his — 
though it might to the physical unit. 
But he is more fearfully and wonderfully made — this ma- 
terial form, first vitalized by a plastic spirit in common with 
the earth and all her creatures, holds within that spirit, as air 
is held in water, a soul, in common with angelic being, which 
illuminates and warms with love and wisdom the gTosser ele- 
ment. Thus his mother shows him that the apparent ap- 
proximation is not the real — ^while the Pedant, reasoning 
through books concerning her " vestiges," finds only the ap- 
parent, and stops there ! 
The Artist can be deceived by no vain juggle of the words 
of a dead human learning ; the truth that has made him 
strong is a vital truth, and its words are alive. They teach 
him to see in the lion a distinct antitype of magnanimous 
courage, and in the type, the heroic man, he traces the real 
approximation through physiognomy, in a resemblance ap- 
parent, not alone in the features of the face, but in the huge 
chest, the heavy limbs, the gentleness of bearing in repose, 
and terrible fierceness when aroused. 
The elephant he sees to be the antitype of judgment and 
sagacity, and in the type, the philosopher and sage, he traces 
the reposeful heaviness of feature and limbs, the simplicity 
and harmlessness of temper, the calm, bright eye and move- 
less will, which belong to that creature. The monkey he 
sees to be only the antitype of that most humble faculty, im- 
itation ; and in the type, the clown or idiot, he sees all the 
monkey in meanness of feature and of nature ! The Artist 
smiles to think that this creature can yet be nearer to the an- 
