68 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



tially distinct in character ; and no one, we imagine, will 

 deny that they both please from " some quality capable oi 

 being illustrated in painting." The beautiful female heads 

 of Carlo Dolce are widely different from those of the pictu- 

 resque peasant girls of Gerard Douw, yet both are favorite 

 subjects with artists. A symmetrical American elm, with 

 its wide head drooping with garlands of graceful foliage, is 

 very different in expression from the wild and twisted larch 

 or pine tree, which we find on the steep sides of a moun- 

 tain ; yet both are favorite subjects with the painter. It is 

 clear, indeed, that there is a widely different idea hidden 

 under these two distinct types, in material forms. 



Beauty, in all natural objects, as we conceive, arises 

 from their expression of those attributes of the Creator — ■ 

 infinity, unity, symmetry, proportion, etc. — which he has 

 stamped more or less visibly on all his works ; and a beau- 

 tiful living form is one in which the individual is a harmo- 

 nious and well balanced development of a fine type. Thus, 

 taking the most perfect specimens of beauty in the human 

 figure, we see in them symmetry, proportion, unity, 

 and grace — the presence of everything that could add 

 to the idea of perfected existence. In a beautiful tree, 

 such as a fine American elm, we see also the most complete 

 and perfect balance of all its parts, resulting from its 

 growth under the most favorable influences. It realizes, 

 then, perfectly, the finest form of a fine type or species of 

 tree. 



But all nature is not equally Beautiful. Both in living 

 things and in inorganized matter, we see on all sides evi- 

 dences of nature strugghng with opposing forces. Moun- 

 tains are upheaved by convulsions, valleys are broken into 

 fearful chasms. Certain forms of animal and vegetable life 



