Fig. 31.
Fig. 32.
The influence of the study of Nature in refining and purifying the human mind has been often insisted on, and its truth is evident. No effort of human thought, which is of a merely terrestrial character, can ever rise to the truly beautiful. Whether the artist desires to paint upon his canvas, to chisel out of marble, to mould in clay, or to cast in metal, forms which shall possess the charm, the secret of inspiring a feeling of the beautiful, he must go to Nature for his inspiration. Looking into the mirror of her works, like the influence of gazing into loving eyes, he draws from it a pure, a holy inspiration, which he may, if his practised hand be obedient to his creative mind, transfer to the gross element which is to express to mankind the power of the true.
Persuaded that but few of those who are engaged on works of art or of art-manufacture have had their attention directed to any of the results of palæontological studies, and feeling confident that an immense store of novelties was to be found amongst the fossil remnants of those days when man was not, the remarks now submitted for their consideration, with every feeling of their imperfections and necessarily sketchy character, will not, it is thought, be without interest.
While dealing with the applications of science to the economic purposes of life, it was thought that a step beyond this mere utilitarian purpose might be allowed, and that the studies of the natural philosopher might be made to minister to the
“Spirit of Beauty, that does consecrate
With its own hues all that it shines upon
Of human thought or form.”