4'74' Downing's Landscape-Gardening. 



pleasure and satisfaction to one object, or one composite sensation at the same 

 time. If two distinct objects, or classes of objects, present themselves at once 

 to us, we can only attend satisfactorily to one, by withdrawing our attention 

 for the time from the other. Hence the necessity of a reference to this lead- 

 ing principle of unity. 



" To illustrate the subject, let us suppose a building, one half of which is 

 constructed of wood, with square windows, and the remaining half of brick 

 or stone, with long and narrow windows. However well such a building 

 may be constructed, or however nicely the different proportions of the edi- 

 fice may be adjusted, it is evident it can never form a satisfactory whole. The 

 mind can only account for such an absurdity, by supposing it to have been 

 built by two individuals, or at two different times, as there is nothing indicat- 

 ing a unity of mind in its composition. 



" In landscape-gardening, violations of the principle of unity are often to be 

 met with, and they are always indicative of the absence of correct taste in art. 

 Looking upon a landscape from the windows of a villa residence, we some- 

 times see a considerable portion of the view embraced by the eye laid out in 

 natural groups of trees and shrubs, and upon one side, or perhaps in the middle 

 of the same scene, a formal avenue leading directly up to the house. Such a 

 view can never appear as a satisfactory whole, because we experience a con- 

 fusion of sensations in contemplating it. There is an evident incongruity in 

 bringing two modes of arranging plantations so totally different under the 

 eye at one moment, which distracts, rather than pleases, the mind. In this 

 example, the avenue taken by itself may be a beautiful object, and the groups 

 and connected masses may, in themselves, be elegant, yet the two portions 

 ■will not form a whole when seen together, because they cannot form a com- 

 posite idea. For the same reason, there is something unpleasing in the in- 

 troduction of fruit trees among elegant ornamental trees on a lawn, or even 

 in assembling together in the same beds flowering plants and culinary vege- 

 tables. One class of vegetation suggesting the useful alone to the mind, and 

 the other only the elegant and ornamental — the two sensations not readily 

 uniting together. 



" In the arrangement of a large extent of surface, where a great many 

 objects are necessarily presented to the eye at once, the principle of unit)' will 

 suggest that there should be some grand ^or leading features to which the 

 others should be merely subordinate. Thus, in grouping trees, there should 

 be some large and striking masses, to which the others appear to belong, how- 

 ever distant, instead of scattered groups all of the same size. Even in arrang- 

 ing walks, a whole will more readily be recognised, if there are one or two of 

 large size with which the others appear connected as branches, than if they 

 were all equal in breadth, and presented the same appearance to the eye in 

 passing. 



" In all works of art which command universal admiration, we discover a 

 unity of conception and composition, a unity of taste and execution. To 

 assemble in a single composition forms which are discordant, and portions 

 dissimilar in plan, can only afford pleasure, for a short time, to tasteless minds 

 or those fond of trifling and puerile conceits. The production of an accordant 

 whole is, on the contrary, capable of affording the most permanent enjoy- 

 ment to educated minds, every where, and at all periods of time. 



" After unity, the principle of variety is worthy of consideration, as a 

 fertile source of beauty in landscape-gardening. The former principle might 

 be carried so far by some minds as to produce monotony, as it may be so 

 totally neglected by others, as to lead to compositions only characterised by 

 discordant assemblages of objects. Variety must be considered as belonging 

 more to the details, than to the production of a whole. By producing certain 

 contrasts, it creates in scenery a thousand points of interest, and thus elicits 

 new beauties, by different arrangements and combinations of forms and colours, 

 lights and shades. Variety in plantations may be attained by a combination of 

 qualities opposite in some respects, as in the colour of the foliage, and similar 



