54 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



Hence we find all Beautiful forms characterized by curved 

 and flowing lines lines expressive of infinity,* of grace, 

 and willing obedience : and all Picturesque forms character 

 ized by irregular and broken lines lines expressive of vio- 

 lence, abrupt action, and partial disobedience, a strug- 

 gling of the idea with the substance or the condition of its 

 being. The Beautiful is an idea of beauty calmly and har- 

 moniously expressed ; the Picturesque an idea of beauty or 

 power strongly and irregularly expressed. As an example 

 of the Beautiful in other arts we refer to the Apollo of the 

 Vatican ; as an example of the Picturesque, to the Laocoon 

 or the Dying Gladiator. In nature we would place before 

 the reader a finely formed elm or chestnut, whose wel 

 balanced head is supported on a trunk full of symmetry and 

 dignity, and w T hose branches almost sweep the turf in their 

 rich luxuriance ; as a picturesque contrast, some pine or 

 larch, whose gnarled roots grasp the rocky crag on which it 

 grows, and whose wild and irregular branches tell of the* 

 storm and tempest that it has so often struggled against.f 



In pictures, too, one often hears the Beautiful confounded 

 with the Picturesque. Yet they are quite distinct ; though 

 in many subjects they may be found harmoniously com- 

 bined. Some of Raphael's angels may be taken as perfect 

 illustrations of the Beautiful. In their serene and heavenly 



* Hogarth called the curve the line of beauty, and all artists have felt instinct- 

 vely its power, but Mr. Ruskin (in Modem Painters) was, we believe, the 

 first to suggest the cause of that power that it expresses in its varying ten 

 dencies, the infinite. 



f This also explains why trees, though they retain for the most part their 

 characteristic forms, vary somewhat in expression according to their situation. 

 Thus the larch, though always picturesque, is far more so in mountain ridges 

 where it is exposed to every blast, than in sheltered lawns where it only finds 

 kwft airs and sunshine. 



