The anecdote is a familiar one in the history of painting, of
the artist employed upon the frescoes of a dome, who stept
back to see from a better point of view the work which he had
done, and became so absorbed in comparing the scenes which
he had depicted with the forming idea as it lay in his mind,
that still proceeding backward he had reached the edge of the
lofty scaffolding, when a pupil, observing his instant peril,
and afraid even to shout to him, rushed forward and marred the
figures with his trowel, so calling back and saving the master.
The mind, engrossed in its own operation, had forgotten the
body, and was treating it as carelessly as the boy treats the
chip which he tosses on the wave.--RICHARD S. STORRS.
(9)
See ASSIMILATION.