, as
Natural. The Natural, or Nature, is the material Universe embracing
the three kingdoms, known as mineral, vegetable, and animal. . . . .

Such being the case, everything in nature is a correspondent of some
thing--is expressive of and consequently representative and
exponential of something--above it or behind it; and that something is
an idea--a thing not material. It follows, then, that every object in
nature has real character in itself as a representative of an idea;
just as, say, an anchor is representative of hope, a heart, of love,
an olive branch, of peace, and a ring, of marriage. . .

We next come to consider the percipient mind. Men's minds have limited
and imperfect faculties and capabilities. That which is good, or true,
or beautiful, to one mind can hardly be the same in the same way and
degree to any other mind. It is true--as some writers have stated, but
none seems willing to push the propositions to their legitimate
conclusions--that the Good and the Beautiful are true, the Beautiful
and the True are good, and the True and the Good are beautiful. We
wish to accept the propositions in their most comprehensive scope and
with all their legitimate consequences.

Let us note, at this point, the fact, obvious enough but generally
overlooked, that in perception the result depends far more upon the
percipient mind than upon the object perceived. To a ploughboy, a
pebble is an insignificant thing, suggestive possibly of some
discomfort in walking, and fit only to shy at a bird, may be; but to
the geologist it appears worthy a volume, and speaks to him of strata
may be a million of years old, of glacial attrition, of volcanic
action, of chemical constituents, of mineralogical principles, and
crystallogenic attraction, of mathematical laws and geometric angles,
and of future geognostic changes. That is to say, the pebble contracts
and expands, as it were, with the faculties and the prejudices of the
person--of the mind--that sees it.

Or, again: The crescent moon is visible in the clear sky. _A_ sees a
bright convenience which enables him to walk better--not so good a
light as the full moon would be, but valuable as far as it goes. _B_
sees a lovely luminary to light him to his lady-love, a hallowed eye
half shut that watches with protecting radiance over her slumbers. _C_
reckons the intervening 238,000 miles, its diameter of 2,162.3 miles,
and his mind busies itself with orbits, radii, ellipses, eclips