The Several Styles 



125 



the mixed style, zigzag, broken, rugged lines (fig. 32) stamp 

 the picturesque. It recognizes no symmetry, and abhors 

 everything allied to law and system. 



And yet, in those examples deducible from the vegetable 

 kingdom which may be accounted picturesque, there is much 

 of wild grace, eccentric softness, and an indescribable but 



Fig. 32. A Type of the Picturesque. 



charming balance of parts. Although nothing may bear the 

 trammels of a rule, or yield to the fetters of definition in 

 language, there is no want of the fluidity, the blending, the 

 harmony, so ravishing to the eye, interrupted, it may be, 

 by some accident, sudden gap or abrupt pause, but still 

 full of spirit, and eloquent of beauty. For after all, nature's 

 forms lie nearest to man's heart, and no devotion to habit 



