2 2 The yonrnal of Forestyy. 



the risk of repentance, can be compared with that which arises simply 

 from the sight of the beauty of his domain and liis home — 

 " Bosomed high in tufted trees." 



On what, let ns ask, does the pleasure depend which is awakened by 

 the contemplation of a noble tree or beautifully wooded landscape ? 

 Let us put the question at once. Now to this may be answered 

 in the most general terms, that this pleasure arises from a harmony 

 between such a landscape and our emotional nature, in virtue of 

 which the latter in beholding the landscape is brought into a state 

 of active well-being, which, as reporting itself in consciousness, is 

 enjoyment. How comes this about ? To answer this, and to get 

 at the root of the matter, we must keep in mind that feeling finds a 

 haven and sabbath for itself only in one or other or both of two 

 things. These are space and time. And these two, in reference to the 

 landscape, mean, first, the oficn of earth and sky, — that is, the space in 

 which the landscape lies ; and, secondly, its suggestiveness of change, 

 for such is the import of time. Now change implies activity, and 

 activity in the last resort — nay, in its fountain, suggests life. Hence 

 a twofold source of enjoyment in the contemplation of a beautiful 

 landscape, namely, /or;n — those forms of objects in it which seem in 

 harmony with the spaces which they occupy; and feature — those 

 features, whatever they may be, which suggest or awake in the mind of 

 the beholder the idea of change and motion, in one word, life ; for 

 life is motion and change. 



Now, corresponding to these two, it has always been felt that there 

 are in a beautiful landscape, and in beautiful objects generally, two 

 sources of beauty, — the one depending on the presence in those 

 objects of areas of certain forms and colours, the other depending on 

 certain contours or lines. And it will be found that the former is 

 generally characterized as simple beauty, the other as expressive 

 Ijeauty, or the beauty of expression. As to the relative value of these 

 two orders of the beautiful, it may be said that those observers who 

 tend to be content with sensations merely when they are pleasing, are 

 most content with simple beauty; those who tend to develop sen- 

 sation into emotion and intellect enjoy expressive beauty most. 



But on what special features in the landscape do these two differing 

 castes of beauty mainly depend ? To answer this question would 

 require too many words for this communication. Let us here confine 

 ourselves to the consideration of the latter kind of beauty — the 

 beauty of expression, — both because it is the most interesting in itself, 

 and because it is that which the tree pre-eminently possesses. 



And here in the progress of our inquiry let it be first remarked 

 that the beauty of expression is carried to the highest state of per- 

 fection in tlie luiinan form. This fact will not be disputed. Neither 



