STUDY XII. 413 



they fome time do, but in nature. Thus, for ex- 

 ample, if the Artift wifhed to communicate an 

 affecting intereft to a cheerful and fmiling land- 

 fcape, he would do well to prefent it through a 

 magnificent triumphal arch, crumbling into ruin 

 by length of time. On the contrary, a city filled 

 with Tufcan and Egyptian monuments, would 

 have a flill greater air of antiquity, when viewed 

 from under a bower of verdure and flowers. We 

 ought to imitate Nature, who never produces the 

 mod lovely plants, in all their beauty, fuch as 

 mofles, violets, and rofes, but at the foot of ruftic 

 rocks. 



Not that confonances do not likewife produce a 

 very powerful effect, efpecially when they feem to 

 unite objects which are diftinc"t from each other. 

 It is thus, for inftance, that the cupola of the Col- 

 lege of the Four Nations, prefents a magnificent 

 point of view, when feen from the middle of the 

 court of the Louvre, through the arcade of that 

 palace which is oppofite, for then you view it com- 

 plete, with a portion of the Heaven under the arch, 

 as if it were a part of the Louvre. But in this 

 very confonance, which gives fuch an extent to our 

 vifion, there is likewife a contrail in the concave 

 form of the arcade, with the convex form of the 

 cupola» 



The 



