So also in nature, it not unfrequently happens that the appearance in many objects of an extraordinary degree of richness, is the surest forerunner of their decline. Thus, the sere tints of autumn, the golden glories which so enchant the tasteful admirer of landscape scenery, are but the unerring symptoms of decay; the hoariness of old age, so reverend and majestic in its appearance, serves but to proclaim that the period of dissolution is approaching; and the glorious luminary of the heavens is never so gorgeous or so resplendent as at the hour of its decline. XII. I come now to the conclusion of this most interesting and ennobling subject, which to me has ever been a source of high gratification, and which to all affords food for research and reflection of a kind the most delightful and the most refining. In this treatise it has been my endeavour to demonstrate the general utility of the arts for the several purposes of life, intellectual social and moral, both as regards their cultivation by individuals, and their effect as a branch of national study.* I have attempted to evince that, although each apparently differing in their nature and purposes, they each had their origin in the mind; and, though so widely branching forth into various channels that occasionally their course can with difficulty be traced to that original, they each at first came from the same fount. They rose like a little rill,† springing out of some dense rock, or oozing from the foot of a glacier. Amidst peaks and over precipices they trace their obscure way,§ now sweetly warbling to the verdant hills, now foaming tempestuously down some dark and deep ravine, exhibiting in their career all the various passions and excitements which distract human nature.|| As the stream swells into greater importance it acquires new features, and becomes endowed with new characteristics.** At one time it is strongly tinctured by the soil over which it flows; at another, clear as crystal, it exhibits to the eye each pebble glittering beneath its waters. At one time it is gently rustled by the breeze; at another, * Chapter I. § Chapter IV. + Chapter II. Chapter III. ** Chapter V. RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION. 285 it is agitated furiously by tempestuous billows. Now smooth and serene as a mirror, it reflects with the utmost precision each object in view,-the towering rocks that overhang it, the blue mountains in the distance, the variously tinted foliage which bedecks its oanks, the clouds of different shapes and aspects that are hovering over it, or, in the still night, the blazing planets which sparkle on its surface. At one time it is dark and overhung with gloom, at another brilliantly glistening in the sun. We have followed this magnificent stream tracing it from its source, and have watched its wanderings from its first growing into a warbling brook, when from its insignificance it would scarcely seem to merit attention; though silently it flowed on, growing at each turn more majestic, and gradually expanding, until at length on its bosom huge vessels, with outspread sails, were seen to be wafted, and the mightiest objects which can excite the human mind, or represent the dignity of man, are floated in its depths.* We have accompanied it through all the varied and beautiful and noble scenery with which it abounds, where at one turn bold rocks, at another verdant plains, formed the shores along which we passed. The wild and oftentimes terrific regions of imagination we have also been exploring,‡ and have penetrated those dark and mystic caverns where that enchanting spirit delights to dwell. How diversified, how beautiful, and how wondrous have been the prospects which we have surveyed, and of which our own nation furnishes abundant instances!§ Its mighty and obscure deeps we have been also led to fathom, and to dive down and discover the hidden springs and currents by which its course is impelled or impeded.|| While engaged in the study of this sublime topic, we have been struck with awe and with delight at the stupendous and beautiful harmony of our own intellectual system, by which, as by the genial influence of the planets in the material world, which roll on through successive ages floating in invisible æther, each guiding, lighting, and affording genial warmth + Chapters VIII, IX, X, XI. Chapter XII. § Chapter XIII. Chapters XIII, XIV. * Chapter VI. to the other, these different efforts have been so successfully and so completely regulated; and have admired the arrangement, alike astonishing and benign, by which the most enchanting and agreeable of our pursuits, should be also that which is productive of the most rich and ennobling effects, through its secret though not less surprising operations, in the refinement and enlargement of all the powers of the soul. THE END. INDEX. A. ABANDONMENT of the dead languages, ABRUPTNESS, i. 318, 319. ACANTHUS, an architectural type, i. 81. ACCIDENT leads to invention, i. 68. tion of principles of composition to, 242. ACTION, in artistical representation, ii. ACTIVE POWERS of the mind, i. 37, 40, ACTOR, necessity of mental cultivation ADAPTATION for art, general, i. 193. ADVANCEMENT, changes in art during ACIDES, horses of, ii. 80. ENEID, the, i. 311; ii. 22, 52, 54, 56, AGE OF ART, the, ii. 256. AGE, adaptation of art to spirit of, ii. AID of art from science, ii. 257. ALBERT DÜRER, i. 209. ALCINOUS, garden of, i. 132. ALEXANDER, the mask of, ii. 49, 101. ALLEGORICAL PICTURES, ii. 196. ALLITERATIVE ORNAMENT in artistical ALPINE SCENERY, study of, ii. 246. ALTON TOWERS, landscape gardening AMATEURS, taste displayed by, ii. 249. 305. ANATOMY, study of, ii. 67, 68. ANCIENT MASTERS, mode of study of ANCIENT POETRY, Percy's Reliques of, ANGEL, whence idea of derived, ii. 124; ANGELO, MICHAEL, LAST JUdgment of, ANGLO-SAXON Architecture, ii. 212; ANGLO-SAXONS, artistic efforts of the, ANIMAL FEELINGS, exhibition of, ii. 77. ANIMALS, artistic study of, ii. 74; ex- ANIMATE, proneness of the mind to, i. 40. ANIMATED NATURE, representation of, ANIMATION, Works of art should be en- dowed with, ii. 36. ANTONY, MARC, Cicero's oration against, APOCALYPSE, the, i. 63; imaginative representations in the, ii. 179, 183, 'APOLLO BELVEDERE,' the, i. 300; ii. 16. APOLOGY, of the author, Preface v. ARCHITECT, necessity of mental cultiva- tion to an, ii. 248. ARCHITECTURE, adapted to represent ii. 212; Saxon, 212; Egyptian, i. 80; ARCHITECTURAL TYPES in natural forms, ARCITE, description of, by Chaucer, ii. ART, adaptation of, to represent human |