THE PICTURESQUE. 133 



dreariness or grandeur. When ascending a mountain 

 we are commonly affected with the most pleasure by 

 viewing some limited prospect from a small altitude. 

 An opening in a wood reveals a single farm-house, with 

 its outbuildings, its green and yellow fields of tillage, 

 flocks grazing on the opposite slope, and here and there 

 a human being engaged in some pleasant occupation. As 

 we continue our ascent, this farm and cottage soon be- 

 come an insignificant portion of an almost boundless 

 variety of objects. The attention now becomes unfixed. 

 The mind rests agreeably on no particular scene, but is 

 somewhat exhilarated by the grandeur of the whole pros- 

 pect. The spectacle is no longer picturesque : it is wild, 

 rude, desolate, or sublime ; but there is nothing in it that 

 awakens the sympathetic interest excited by the first 

 limited view of the farm and cottage. 



A scene in real nature, to be picturesque, must be sug- 

 gestive ; and in a picture or in a poem we must not be 

 presented with all which the poet or the ' artist would 

 suggest to the mind. By this law of agreeable effects 

 we may account for the pleasantness of a crooked or 

 winding road and the tiresomeness of a straight road, 

 which, by displaying the approaching scenes to view, 

 leaves nothing to the imagination. The picturesque 

 quality of an object is made up in great part of its sug- 

 gestiveness of agreeable images not beheld ; the " evidence 

 of things not seen," and those of an interesting nature. 

 And if it be a picture, the ideal perfection of the work 

 depends on an ingenious selection of those points which 

 call up the most charming images in the mind. 



Something of human interest must be associated with 

 a scene in nature to render it picturesque in the highest 

 degree. A rude scene, without qualifying accompaniments, 

 reminds us only of waste and discomfort. To afford it a 

 sympathetic character, there should be added a little hut, 



