152 May — The Horse-chestnut. 



XXIX. 



Artistic and other Ideas of IBeauty — The Horse-chestnut — A Painter's 

 Embarrassment — Countable yet Numerous Things — Leaves — Foli- 

 age — Objection to the Horse-chestnut — Glory of the Tree in May 

 — Transparencies — Bold and decided Contrasts — Flowers of the 

 Horse-chestnut. 



ONE of the most striking examples of the difference 

 between artistic ideas of beauty and those ideas 

 of beauty which we derive directly from Nature without 

 the intervention of painting is supplied by the horse- 

 chestnut. In Nature it is one of the most noble of all 

 trees, yet it has rarely been celebrated by landscape- 

 painters, who, when you talk to them about it, almost 

 invariably express a dislike for the peculiar quality of 

 its foliage ; nor have they been more attracted by its 

 magnificent efflorescence, although in our northern 

 countries no other tree of equal dimensions bears such 

 splendid flowers, or any thing comparable to them. The 

 reason is easily discovered. In the art of painting there 

 is always a peculiar embarrassment in dealing with 

 things that are countable and yet exceedingly numerous. 

 Such things require great labor for their individualiza- 

 tion, because the eye so easily detects a failure or in- 

 sufficiency in design ; whilst, on the other hand, there is 

 a difficulty in passing from this complete individuality 

 of the things seen near at hand to the mystery of the 

 things that are utterly past counting. When things are 



