Beauties and I'rinciplcs of the Art 33 



this branch of the subject; some, like Hepton, insisting 

 that they are identical; and others, like Price, that they 

 are widely different. 



Gilpin defines Picturesque objects to be ' those which 

 please from some quality capable of being illustrated in 

 painting." 



Nothing can well be more vague than such a definition. 

 We have already described the difference between the 

 beautiful landscapes of Claude and the picturesque scenes 

 painted by Salvator. No one can deny their being essen- 

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

 deny that they both please from " some quality capable of 

 being illustrated in painting." The beautiful female heads 

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

 turesque peasant girls of Gerard Douw, yet both are fa- 

 vorite subjects with artists. A symmetrical American elm, 

 with its wide head drooping with garlands of graceful foli- 

 age, is very different in expression from the wild and twisted 

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

 mountain; 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 - - in- 

 finity, 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 



