And shapeless frets which decorate the wall,
are just as expensive, and difficult of execution, as the most elegant imitation of vegetable or animal configuration would be; and surely when such variety of forms are presented to the artist, they deserve to be copied as transcendently superior to the capricious fancies of the most celebrated decorator, or of [p295] the most splendid fashionable designs; either in the works of the sculptor, scagliolist, &c. or the more insignificant designers of figured paper or drapery. Indeed there can be no good reason why ox-heads and garlands (now the days of sacrifices are past) should not be banished from the frieze and entablature, to admit the far more appropriate figures of foliage, fruit, and flowers, aquatic as well as terrestrial, which every garden yields;—and for interior enrichments of cornices, mouldings, &c., the curious and elegant forms of the testacea, would afford beautiful copies for imitation.
In fine, if there be any merit or propriety in the adaptation of whatever is elegant in form, beautiful in outline, harmonious in tint and proportion, and congruous in combination, such may readily be found in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Faithful representations of such objects, not only open a fine field for the exercise of individual ability, at this time, but also a source from which might be drawn a large share of public patronage, and consequent commensurate reward. Indeed it is now pretty evident that in many things, especially in the minor works of art, we have been too long and too rigidly impressed with a veneration for the works of antiquity, or what is equally benumbing, a passive following of tyrant fashion; and that many a bright genius has been “nipped in the bud,” and remained “twinkling in the socket” of Grecian and Roman rules, who, if venturous enough to have burst the shackles of professional thraldom, would have improved and elevated his art, as well as himself, by designs and works which would have advanced his profession and adorned his country.
But it is not yet too late; a knowledge and study of the genuine elements of taste, whether of art or nature, and a mind embued with rational perceptions of all that is beautiful and picturesque, and grand or sublime in either, will rise superior to all precedential fetters, as well as all modern mannerism, and will equally regard the excellencies of the ancients, as it will avoid the errors of some modern artists, who, in leaving the beaten track, have deviated far and widely from the point to which good sense and good taste would have led. [p296]
A list of plants, &c. which exemplify all that is elegant in form, beautiful in outline and graceful in position, should have accompanied the above imperfect remarks, but this must be deferred to another opportunity.
J. M.
De l’Influence des Agens Physiques sur la Vie. Par W. F. Edwards, D. M., &c. [◊] [Continued from the last Number.]
IN our last number we presented our readers with a general abstract of the first part of this valuable work. The second part refers to animals of the cold blood order, including fish and reptiles. The larvæ of the latter underwent some comparative experiments detailed in the first chapter, because they partake of the nature both of fish and reptiles, as to their respiratory function; the imperfection of their intermediate state and developement of organization not interfering with the objects in view, and the double mode of aërification being exercised unequally. The skin of these young animals furnishes them with the means of producing the requisite changes in the blood by absorption, as in the adult, while it lives in water; and the cutaneous respiration goes on through this medium at a temperature which the subsequent more perfect animal is unable to endure. The object entertained is the influence of physical agents upon the changes which these animals pass through in their form and structure.
An important condition of their advancement to maturity seems to be, that the nutriment suspended in the water should be in very small and limited proportions. Temperature also influences their constitutional changes.
Sometimes the larvæ pass through the winter in their primitive state; a fact not generally known. Some tadpoles were confined within wooden boxes submersed in the river Seine, in which holes were perforated to allow the stream to pass through, without the possibility of the animals rising to the surface of the water, and thus to inhale air. Others were placed in a large vessel of Seine water renewed at intervals, with power to rise above the surface. Ten in twelve of the first box underwent no transformation, the others having gone partially through their change. But [p297] those of the large vessel, and not submersed in the river, passed through their changes of form without the least appearance of the phenomenon being retarded. The running waters of the Seine probably contained nutritious matter, which the water periodically renewed was more deficient in.