AUGUST. 353 



that they could not have been better united by the hand of 

 art. When we meet with them in cultivated scenes, we 

 praise the taste of the artist, and say that the composition 

 is pure and harmonious. 



In natural scenery the colors of the great ingredients, 

 ground, water, wood, rocks and buildings, are very different, 

 and are susceptible of great varieties. In every scene, how- 

 ever, which is expressive, we look for and demand an unity 

 in the expression of these different colors. They may be 

 too rich, too solemn, or too cheerful for the rest of the scene. 

 The vivid green, for instance, which is so pleasing in a cheer- 

 ful landscape, would ill suit a scene of melancholy or deso- 

 lation. The brown heath, which so singularly accords with 

 scenes of gloom or barrennesss, would be intolerable in a 

 landscape of gaiety. The grey rock, which throws so vener- 

 able an air over grave or solemn scenes, would have but a 

 feeble effect in scenes of horror. The blue and peaceful 

 stream, which gives such loveliness to the solitary valley, 

 would appear altogether misplaced, amid scenes of rude and 

 savage majesty. The white foam and discolored waters of 

 the torrent alone suit the wildness of their expression. 



In the infancy of society, when art was first cultivated, 

 and the attention of men first directed to works of design, it 

 is natural to imagine, that such forms would be employed in 

 those arts which were intended to please, as were most 

 strongly expressive of design or skill. The art of gardening 

 seems to have been long governed by this same principle. 

 When men first began to consider a garden as a subject capable 

 of beauty, or of bestowing any distinction upon its possessors, 

 it was natural that they should endeavor to render its forms 

 as different as possible from that of the country around it ; 

 and to mark, to the spectator, as strongly as they could, both 

 the design and the labor which they had bestowed upon it. 



Irregular forms, however convenient or agreeable, might 

 still be the production of nature ; but forms perfectly regular, 

 and divisions completely uniform, immediately excited the 

 belief of design, and, with this belief, all the admiration which 

 follows the employment of skill, or even of expense. That 



VOL. XXII. NO. VIII. 45 



