. Love's meinie : lectures on Greek and English birds, given before the University of Oxford . art purposes ; and, which is far more desirable, feel howvery little we know, to any purpose, of even the familiarcreatmes that are our companions. LOVE S MEINIE. 69 Even what we have seen to-day * is more than appearsto have been noticed by the most careful painters of thegreat schools; and you will continually fancy that I aminconsistent with myself in pressing you to learn, betterthan they, the anatomy of birds, while I violently andconstantly urge you to refuse the knowledge of the anato-my of me
. Love's meinie : lectures on Greek and English birds, given before the University of Oxford . art purposes ; and, which is far more desirable, feel howvery little we know, to any purpose, of even the familiarcreatmes that are our companions. LOVE S MEINIE. 69 Even what we have seen to-day * is more than appearsto have been noticed by the most careful painters of thegreat schools; and you will continually fancy that I aminconsistent with myself in pressing you to learn, betterthan they, the anatomy of birds, while I violently andconstantly urge you to refuse the knowledge of the anato-my of men. But you will find, as my system developesitself, that it is absolutely consistent throughout. I dont Fig. mean, by telling you not to stud}^ human anatomy, thatyou are not to know how many fingers and toes you have,nor how 3ou can grasp and walk with them; and, simi- * Large and somewhat carefully painted diagrams were shown at thelecture, which I cannot engrave but for my complete edition. 70 LOVE S MEINIE. larly, when you look at a bird, I wish yon to know howmany claws and wing-feathers it has, and how it gripsand flies with them. Of the bones, in either, I shall showyou little ; and of the muscles, nothing but what can beseen in the living creature, nor, often, even so much. 77. And accordingly, when I now show you this sketchof my favourite Holbein, and tell you that it is entirelydisgraceful he should not know what a wing was, better,—I dont mean that it is disgraceful he should not knowthe anatomy of it, but that he should never have lookedat it to see how the feathers lie. Fig. 10.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidloves, booksubjectswallows
