d us to possess when we were children, is hopelessly
shut out from us. Worse than shut out, for the mass of coarse imitations
confuses our knowledge acquired from other sources; and our memory of
the marbles we have perhaps once or twice carefully examined, is
disturbed and distorted by the inaccuracy of the imitations which are
brought before us continually.

Sec. XLIV. But it will be said, that it is too expensive to employ real
marbles in ordinary cases. It may be so: yet not always more expensive
than the fitting windows with enormous plate glass, and decorating them
with elaborate stucco mouldings and other useless sources of expenditure
in modern building; nay, not always in the end more expensive than the
frequent repainting of the dingy pillars, which a little water dashed
against them would refresh from day to day, if they were of true stone.
But, granting that it be so, in that very costliness, checking their
common use in certain localities, is part of the interest of marbles,
considered as history. Where they are not found, Nature has supplied
other materials,--clay for brick, or forest for timber,--in the working
of which she intends other characters of the human mind to be developed,
and by the proper use of which certain local advantages will assuredly
be attained, while the delightfulness and meaning of the precious
marbles will be felt more forcibly in the districts where they occur, or
on the occasions when they may be procured.

Sec. XLV. It can hardly be necessary to add, that, as the imitation of
marbles interferes with and checks the knowledge of geography and
geology, so the imitation of wood interferes with that of botany; and
that our acquaintance with the nature, uses, and manner of growth of the
timber trees of our own and of foreign countries, would probably, in the
majority of cases, become accurate and extensive, without any labor or
sacrifice of time, were not all inquiry checked, and all observation
betrayed, by the wretched labors of the "Grainer."

Sec. XLVI. But this is not all. As the practice of imitation retards
knowledge, so also it retards art.

There is not a meaner occupation for the human mind than the imitation
of the stains and striae of marble and wood. When engaged in any easy and
simple mechanical occupation, there is still some liberty for the mind
to leave the literal work; and the clash of the loom or the activity of
the fingers will not always prevent the thoughts f