298 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



the blossom ; and they both owe their origin to wounds 

 and weaknesses. 



It must strike every thoughtful mind how much 

 special beauty is conferred by imperfection and decay ; 

 nay, " how necessary it is, even in order to be beauti- 

 ful, that some objects should subserve their purpose 

 inadequately." Has not the ruined abbey a more 

 picturesque charm about it than the new church in 

 which the worship of God is carried on? Is not the 

 peasant's thatched house, foul with damp, which totally 

 fails to subserve its intended purpose, more gratifying to 

 the artistic sense and fancy of the spectator than the 

 solid, well-built cottage in its neighbourhood, which pos- 

 sesses all the modern appliances for health and comfort? 

 Does not the poet's eye rest with more instinctive 

 pleasure upon a meandering stream than upon a 

 stream that flows like a canal ? What object can be 

 more beautiful artistically than an old wall, weather- 

 stained, hoary with moss and lichen, mantled with ivy 

 and weeds, shattered and full of breaches, through 

 which the cattle leap into forbidden pastures; more 

 pleasing far in this ruinous condition than a straight 

 strong wall of masonry, clean and firm, from which not a 

 stone has fallen or broken out of line ? It is not the 

 clump of noble oaks, with trunks as straight and well- 

 formed as pillars, and richly rounded and perfect masses 

 of foliage, which appeals to our love of the beautiful, so 

 much as the cluster of aged trees, with gnarled boles 

 and broken and ragged branches and scanty leaves, that 

 are fast succumbing to the ravages of time ! All beauti- 



