8 
which Palissy had seen; but, can any one say that 
they and the dish together form a beautiful combina¬ 
tion? We can hardly assert that a dish, an object 
to be used, on which lizards are sprawling, and 
crawfish crawling, with cowries round the borders, 
and all manner of living things moving about among 
them, can be a beautiful work of art. The things 
themselves are true and beautiful, but the combina¬ 
tion is incongruous, and there is no beauty in the 
work as a whole. Now that is the point on which 
attention should be fixed. It is clear from such an 
example, that when we assert an object which is true 
to be beautiful, the assertion must be taken with a 
certain limitation. This point might be much en¬ 
larged upon. 
11. In all natural objects there exists a law of sym¬ 
metry, which is chai'acteristic of every form in which 
the organic world is seen. It does not matter what 
we select. Take a horse. It is impossible not to see 
that there is the most perfect symmetry in his struc¬ 
ture however inferior the breed to which he may 
belong. The two sides of the animal answer the 
one to the other. If you cut him in two, the halves 
are essentially the same; leg answers to leg, eye to 
eye, nostril to nostril, rib to rib, and, in the various 
veins and muscles, those of the one side con’espond 
with those of the other, within certain limits. So 
again with birds; leg answers to leg, and wing to 
wing, and even feather to feather. 
12. It may seem superfluous to mention this, and 
I only do so for the sake of indicating a universal law. 
13. It is hardly necessary to observe that in the 
shells on Palissy’s dish, where less perfect symmetry is 
observable, circumstances are not the same as in the 
instances already adduced; for a shell does not exactly 
