of it, the history of the ages, since the first appearance of life on our globe, is the history of the development of taste within them; and the records of progress are but the records of the advancing perceptions of truth, of goodness, or of beauty.
But our subject is of much more limited extent than the progress of taste, in the widest sense of it, from the beginning of life on our globe to the present moment. That would be beyond alike our ambition and our power. Our aim will only be to indicate, in a broad and general way, the development of a taste for the beautiful, especially in external nature. We will not, of course, exclude the consideration of all phenomena in other spheres of taste. On the contrary, we shall seek to indicate as we go along some points of progress in art and morality, and the general widening of the thoughts of men. But our main business will be to note the widening and growing intensity of a love for the beauty and grandeur of the outward, material world as distinguished from man and his works. And, having done that, we may be in a better position to consider with advantage various other questions relative to beauty which should be of interest to all, but especially to inquirers in philosophy and theology.
Without further preamble, then, and without raising any question in the meantime as to what beauty is, or of how we come to perceive it at all, we may ask, where in the scale of creation does a taste for beauty begin to be shown? Is it confined to man, or do we share it with the lower animals? And if we do share it with them, with which of them do we share it? With them all, or with only a few? And if with only a few, what are the few in particular? And the tions, it must be confessed, are, like many of their kind,