It is well known, that the “world of nature” consists of productions, including objects of every degree of beauty from the very lowest to the highest, and calculated to suit not only the tastes arising from various degrees of intellect, but those arising from the natural instincts of the lower animals. On the other hand, “the world of art,” being devoted to the gratification and improvement of intelligent minds only, is therefore narrowed in its scope by the exclusion from its productions of the lower degrees of beauty—even mediocrity is inadmissible; and we know that the science of the ancient Greek artists enabled them to excel the highest individual productions of nature in the perfection of symmetrical beauty. Consequently, all objects in nature are not equally well adapted for artistic study, and it therefore requires, on the part of the artist, besides true genius, much experience and care to enable him to choose proper subjects from nature; and it is in the choice of such subjects, and not in plagiarism from the ancients, that he should select with knowledge and adapt with wisdom. Hence, all such latitudinarian doctrines as those I have quoted must act as a check upon the progress of knowledge in the scientific truth of art. I have observed in some of my works, that in this country a course had been followed in our search for the true science of beauty not differing from that by which the alchymists of the middle ages conducted their investigations; for our ideas of visible beauty are still undefined, and our attempts to produce it in the various branches of art are left dependant, in a great measure, upon chance. Our schools are conducted without reference to any first principles or definite laws of beauty, and from the drawing of a simple architectural moulding to the intricate combinations of form in the human figure, the pupils trust to their hands and eyes alone, servilely and mechanically copying the works of the ancients, instead of being instructed in the unerring principles of science, upon which the beauty of those works normally depends. The instruction they receive is imparted without reference to the judgment or understanding, and they are thereby led to imitate effects without investigating causes. Doubtless, men of great genius sometimes arrive at excellence in the arts of design without a knowledge of the principles upon which beauty of form is based; but it should be kept in mind, that true genius includes an intuitive perception of those principles along with its creative power. It is, therefore, to the generality of mankind that instruction in the definite laws of beauty will be of most service, not only in improving the practice of those who follow the arts professionally, but in enabling all of us to distinguish the true from the false, and to exercise a sound and discriminating taste in forming our judgment upon artistic productions. Æsthetic culture should consequently supersede servile copying, as the basis of