How far the manual and technical arts of human life owe their
suggestion and origin to imitation is a point which, so far as
I know, has not been fully considered. That the first canoe
was made in imitation of a rotten tree which had served as
a ferry-boat; that the first pillar was constructed in the
likeness of an erect tree; that the Gothic arch was made to
represent the overreaching boughs in some forest glade; that
the triglyph in the Doric frieze represents the ends of the
cross-beams which rested on the architrave--all this seems very
probable, and suggests that further investigation might show
that to a great degree imitation of the objects of nature, or of
earlier structures, underlies all the various arts and products
of human labor.--Lord Justice FRY, _Contemporary
Review_.
(1528)
See NATURE A MODEL.