.

THE FINE ARTS.

A FEW HINTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF SIZE IN ITS RELATION TO THE FINE ARTS.

BY GEORGE HARVEY.

It is a common remark made by most persons who visit the mightiest
cataract in the world, that it fails to impress one's mind with that just
idea of its grandeur which truly belongs to its vastness, and which is
always formed from attentively reading or listening to a correct verbal or
written description of it. Even the most faithful drawings cannot awaken
an adequate conception of the majesty, the greatness of NIAGARA. Now the
law of optics will serve to convince us that this must ever be so, since
the image formed in the dark chamber of the eye is exceedingly small; and
as the Falls are always approached gradually from a distance, the
surrounding landscape occupies by far the largest portion of the field of
vision; hence the descending stream can only sustain a subordinate part in
the general view; but when you have approached the very verge of the
precipice over which the rolling waters rush with maddening roar; or when,
from beneath, you stand upon the piles of broken rocks, and look upward or
around, and can only embrace a small portion of the falling waters; then
and then only, do the anticipated emotions crowd upon the soul, causing it
to stand in trembling awe, vibrating in unison with the fragments of the
fallen precipice upon which you tread.

I remember some years since, in looking at an image of the 'American
Falls' reflected in a camera-obscura which was built on the opposite
shore, noticing how extremely insignificant it appeared, notwithstanding
the table of vision was five feet in diameter. The descending foam as it
was unevenly projected in billowy masses, appeared to move very slowly in
its downward course, causing a feeling of impatience at its tardiness: in
truth, the whole scene looked very tame and unsatisfactory, and I could
not help remarking to a friend who was with me, how utterly impossible it
would be for any artist to be thought successful in an attempt to
represent them. Nevertheless I made some twenty sketches from as many
different points of view; one only of which has procured any commendation,
as conveying an idea of the grandeur of the Great Cataract. It is evident
therefore that what the eye can take in at one look will never of itself
impress the mind with those sublime emotions which we conceive should
belong to vastness. Yet there is a physical attribute belon