ded it, its development is but their
legitimate expansion. The gray and stern arches, the hitherto
colorless sky of the art temple, now take the azure hue of the
heavens, while hovering cherubs look down from their cerulean
depths; the relievos glow, and color defines, as it etherealizes,
the works of man. Painting, at first absorbed in the plastic arts,
scarcely begins to show symptoms of life until she is fully born,
and living in her own distinctive form! As that power which
develops the almost infinite variety of forms is to the universe,
so is painting with its ever ready and vivid canvas to the temple
of art.

'Meanwhile the art temple has not remained wrapped in gloomy
silence; and another series of developments, bearing the same
relation to sound and hearing as the first did to light and sight,
have commenced. As beings ascend in the scale of life, the forms
appealing to sight alone, become less capable of expressing their
nature. If the universe had been without voice, the highest which
it contains had been shrouded in the pall of an eternal silence;
but creation has a voice which is specific in every genus, in every
species, in every individual. Transport yourself in thought to one
of the vast solitudes of the New World--listen to the rustling of
the myriad-leafed forests as they forever murmur on the banks of
the thousands of nameless and unknown streams which ripple through
them; to the clash of the impetuous torrents as they rush down the
precipitous sides of the mountains to glide on from their feet
through beds of soft moss or sedgy grass; to the booming thunder,
driving, scattering, and tearing the flying clouds; to the
intermingling sounds arising from the myriads of creatures which
are roaring, bellowing, humming, buzzing, hissing, singing, upon
the bosom of this primeval world--listen! this is the voice of
nature, indistinct and confused, but majestic, solemn,
multitudinous, full of mystery and palpitating with vague emotions.

'As the art temple symbolizes the creation, is the plastic image of
it, a voice is also heard from its depths, which rides upon the
winds, and pierces afar off. The echo of an invisible world, it is
solemn, mysterious, and multiform, appealing to the inmost
feelings, rousing the sleeping powers, awak