2 6 T/ie yoiirnal of Forestry. 



circle wlieii displayed in a simple arch or simply arched segments 

 is expressive of the absence of high life, intelligence, righteousness, — 

 in a word, all that aims at the infinite, so when circular arches are 

 coupled in an inverse or symmetrical way, thus generating an S or 

 serpentine line, a form by whicli the " right " or straight line is not 

 suggested at all, the expression is that which is the very opposite of 

 intelligence and righteousness. It is, in short, diabolical or Satanic 

 — a result which every one will feel to be not devoid of very interest- 

 ing historical significance, as well as of the expression of individuals 

 whom one meets too often, and never meets without a secret desire to 

 ])art as soon as may be. 



Intermediate between these extremes are all kinds of expressions in 

 people who do not depart so far on either hand from the type of the 

 human form as to be strange and displeasing to look at, and who are 

 more or less pleasing in consequence of the possession more or less 

 of both kinds of beauty, that namely of colour and surface, and that 

 of contour or feature. 



But I shall not go into further details here, in order that without 

 being too tedious I may extend the theory of expression advanced 

 one step further — a step which has special bearings upon the expres- 

 sion of the forest tree ; and it is this, — that lines and contours are 

 expressive of special states of life, according as they exist in directions 

 which show successful resistance to the deadening power of merely 

 material force, or are succumbing to it. The deadening power referred 

 to is pre-eminently gravitation, affecting all bodies more or less with 

 weight. Well, it will be found in reference to the human face and 

 figure that the general difference between a cheerful or joyous expres- 

 sion on the one hand, and a depressed or melancholy expression on 

 the other,all depends upon this — whether the mobile features, the whole 

 attitude, the head, the eyebrows, the cheeks, the angles of the mouth, 

 are kept up by the power of life triumphing over dead weight, or 

 suffered to fall down in subjection to it. 



In conclusion, all that has now been advanced applies to the objects 

 which form the care and the delightful study of the forester and 

 landscape gardener. I am much mistaken if he will not be surprised, 

 when looking at the forest tree, or the clump, or the landscape as a 

 whole, from the point of view here presented, to find to what an 

 extent the eye in the most general contours before him detects the 

 lines here advocated as the parents of beauty, including of course 

 many modifications, — as, for instance, the ovcd^ as well as the ellipse 

 (which is the form that many trees project as their profile against the 

 sky) and the isosceles triangle (which is that of the finest coniferse), 

 and which is truly a conic section (parallel to the axis of the cone), 

 though not usually included among those lines, as indeed I omitted to 

 do when enumerating them in this article. 



