THE PICTURESQUE. ' 135 



of smoke to " the waving line of beauty." This is but 

 the cant of metaphysical pedants, who delight in tracing 

 effects to inadequate causes. As well might we refer the 

 emotions we feel when watching the lightning that flashes 

 through a dark cloud to " the zigzag line of sublimity." 

 The waving line, or any other line of beauty, must be 

 associated with some agreeable sentiment, or it is nothing. 

 There is no positive beauty in smoke. It owes the 

 interest it awakens entirely to association. Even when 

 it ascends spirally from a mere brick-kiln, its beauty 

 comes from its indication of the pleasant serenity of the 

 atmosphere, that saves it from blending into a formless 

 mass, not from the character of the figure it displays. 



To a boor nothing is either poetical or picturesque. 

 No object is attractive to him that does not either dazzle 

 his eyes or excite his astonishment. Scenes that would 

 suggest a thousand delightful images to a man of culti- 

 vated imagination are to the boor a mere blank. To him 

 a rock, a tree, and a house have no connection with senti- 

 ment. If the rock does not reach to the clouds, if the 

 tree does not rear itself stupendously into the air, or if 

 the house is not magnificent in size or embellishments, 

 they are nothing to him, because they excite no admira- 

 tion. But to a man of feeling a mere hovel awakens 

 the most agreeable fancies, and a sheepfold may cause 

 more interest than a palace. A rock presents him with a 

 whole field of natural curiosities, and a tree becomes an 

 object under whose shade he may revive a long train of 

 studious recreations. 



