I 



FRA G MENT 



CONCERNING CONTRASTS 



The gaudy sketch which accompanies this Fragment was taken 



at the moment when a dark and heavy summers shower was 

 suddenly succeeded by a bright effulgence of light in a conser- 

 vatory from which the glass roof had been removed. Although 

 the effect was such as neither this sketch nor any painting can 



express, it may yet be useful in elucidating the following re- 

 marks concerning Contrasts. The first contrast here shewn is 

 that in the shape of the trees, betwixt the straight, stiif, an 



roop 



forms to 



upright forms to the right, and those 

 left; and though we may admire the stately and aspiring cha- 

 racter of the hollyhock and larkspur among flowers, with the 

 cedar and cypress among trees, yet if we turn to the opposite 

 side, we shall confess the justice of Mr. Burke's remark, that 

 a certain degree of weakness is not incompatible with beauty; 



and that in vegetables, as in the human form, the apparent 



need of support increases the interest we feel in what is grace- 

 ful or beautiful. 



The sketch first serves to exemplify the contrast* betwixt 



Acacia 



I have occasionally planted near each other such trees as the Liburnum and the 

 with weeping Birch and Willows j adding such flowers and shrubs as grace- 



fully accord, by the pendulous manner of their growth ; this makes a source of pleasing 



o 



