Or, when we eat of the fragrant honey, we do not quarrel with the thymy bees because they have blended for us the sweets of Hybla. The flowers from which they were drawn are lovely and perfumed as before, but the workers have made from them a _new whole_, in which the pilfered sweets have gained a higher value from their perfect union. Those who prefer the dewy juice as it exists in the plant, may use their own powers to extract it, for the bee has not injured the flowers, and they may still be found blooming in the keen mountain air; but let those who may not scale the heights, nor work the strange transmutation, who yet love the fragrant honey, eat--blessing the little artist for his waxen cells and winged labor. Who would quarrel with a friend because he had roamed through many a clime to find flowers for a wreath woven for our pleasure? Virgin Lilies from the still lakes of Wordsworth, Evergreens from the labyrinthine forests of Schlegel, Palm from the holy hills of Tissandier, Amaranth with the breath of angels fresh upon it from the Paradise groves of Ruskin, interwoven with Passion Flowers and Anemones of his own wilds,--shall we not acknowledge our wreath as a new whole, seeing that the isolated fractions are raised to a higher power in becoming essential parts of a new unity? Eugene, the wreath of Lilies, Evergreen, Palm, and Amaranth--the honey of Hybla--the many-leaved nest of the little architect, in which you may swing through the storms of the finite, into the deep and cloudless blue of the infinite,--are now before you! Will you not look up from the fleshless and skeleton perfection of the problemed forms, which start at your slightest touch from the formal squares of the chess board,--forms which confuse me with their complexity, bewilder me in the mazes of their ceaseless combinations, dazzle me with their chill erudition, and appal me with want of life,--and smile acceptance on the glowing gifts here lovingly tendered you? * * * * * CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST. CHAP. I, _Beauty._ CHAP. II, _The Soul of Art._ CHAP. III, _The Infinite._ CHAP. IV, _Unity._ CHAP. V, _Order, Symmetry, and Proportion._ CHAP. VI, _Truth and Love._ CHAP. VII, _The Artist and his Realm--The Ideal._ BEAUTY 'The awful shadow of some unknown Power Floats, though unseen, among us, visiting This various world with as inconstant wing As summer winds that creep from flower to flower.' SHELLEY. A philosophical theory of poetry and the fine arts should consider, in the first place, the fundamental and general laws of Beauty; in the second place, analyze the faculties necessary for the perception or creation of the Beautiful; and, in the last place, should strive to account for the pleasure always experienced in its contemplation. Such an analysis is necessary, as an introductory study, to the full and complete comprehension of any specific branch of art.