14 



Second The next situation is what I may be al- 

 Situation. lowed to call a romantic one : the sen- 

 timent to be created by it, is that of composure of 

 mind, and perhaps even of melancholy. 



The view of a highland country, if desert, cre- 

 ates a disagreeable horror; the view of a romantic si- 

 tuation, if retired, creates an agreeable one. The 

 cause of the difference is this: in a very great situa- 

 tion, the country is so vast as to bear no proportion 

 to the littleness of a single person ; he is sensible of 

 the comparison ; and, when alone, falls into a kind 

 of despair. Whereas, in a romantic retired situation, 

 the parts not being so great, there is no dispropor- 

 tion betwixt it and the single inhabitant; he is apt to 

 consider it as no more than subservient to him, and 

 that thought, with the natural melancholy which such 

 a situation creates in him, makes him desire to see 

 none other in it. 



For that reason, in the first highland disposition 

 of grounds, it was necessary to call the mind to life 

 and motion ; but in this romantic situation on the 

 contrary, it is proper, in order to compose the mind,, 

 to remove it in a good measure from both. 



For this reason, the views of ruins are much 

 more proper for this situation, than those of houses 

 intended for use; at the same time, if it is necessary 

 to have buildings of the latter kind, they ought to be 

 of the GOTHIC architecture. With regard to the 

 architecture of ruins, they are full as proper to be of 

 the GRECIAN form ; for as nothing is more cheerful 

 than the elegance of a Grecian building when en- 

 tire, so scarce any thing strikes with a more pleasing 

 melancholy than such a building in ruins. Its once 

 gay condition, makes its present state more mournful. 

 The buildings which are not intended for use, should 

 be such as are subservient to thepurposeseither of re- 

 ligion or grief; as a cloister, a chapel, a spire, a hermi- 

 tage ; or a pyramid, an obelisk, a monument, SfC. With 

 regard to the colour of all these buildings, it ought 

 to be far from the dazzling white of tliose in the for- 



