NATURE AND ART.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 229, 31 January 1885, Page 10

NATURE AND ART.

("WRITTEN FOR THE OBSERVER.) By Thomas Sharps, Onehunga. We boast the triumphs of the mind, the progress'of the age, The growing skill of arlizan, the wisdom of thesage, But while we praise man's handiwork, oh, iet us not forget Though, glorious are the works of man, God's areunequalled jet ; Let not our skill exalt our pride, let us rerriemberstill, That God alone is perfect, that his marvels mock our skill ; That though man built the busy town, it was byGod's own hand That Nature was created, and matchless beauties planned. Oh, Nature ! tliou art beautiful, 'thy Deauties are divine, The finished products of man's skill can never viewith thine ; The fairest city marblo built, the haunt of busymen, Must yield to Nature's lovliness of mountain,. stream, and glen. The 'Minster towers that proudly rear their slender spires on high Are dwarfed beside the mountains vast uprising. to the sky ; The proudest ship man ever built, though hugeand strong they be, Is at the mercy of the waves, a speck upon thesea. The mingled dyes of India's silk, fresh soiless from.' the loom, Have not the blossom's glowing tints, the rose'sliving bloom, The gems that deck a monarch's crown, though beautiful and bright, Are lustreless compai'ed with those that deck thebrow of night, x'he artist's hand with cunning rare may paint a. fair ideal, But all his pictured beauties are faint shadows of" the real ; The engineer at vice and lathe may think and' toil and plan — He cannot fashion a machine as marvellous asman. Oh, wondrous are the works of man, the triumphs • of his will, But there are bounds to all his schemes, a limit to his skill ; He cannot guide the planets' course, or rule th&wind and sea Nor sway the mighty universe or grasp eternity. Though man may hope and plan and toil perfection to attain — Perfection is God's attribute and mortals try in-. vain. In all that hand and mind achieve some blemish'we can find, The works of God, and His alone, are perfect of their kind.