PICTURESQUE ANIMALS. 297 



the domesticated animal that supplies them with milk. 

 The hardiness and activity of the goat, his frequent in- 

 troduction into pictures of Alpine scenery, and his 

 habit of finding sustenance in wild regions and fast- 

 nesses where no other animal could live, combine to 

 render his image strongly suggestive of rusticity and 

 the simple habits of mountaineers. 



It is common to regard the uncouthness of the ap- 

 pearance of these animals as the quality from which 

 they derive their picturesque expression. It is much 

 more probable that, on account of the absence of 

 beauty of color, smoothness, and symmetry, the imagi- 

 nation is left more entirely to the influence of the poetic 

 and traditional images connected with these animals. 

 In this way it may often be explained why rudeness is, 

 to a certain extent, a negative picturesque quality, be- 

 cause it leaves the imagination entirely to the sugges- 

 tions of the scene ; whereas, if it were very beautiful, 

 the sight would be more agreeably occupied in survey- 

 ing its intrinsic beauties than in dwelling upon its 

 more poetical relations to certain other ideas and 

 objects. 



Why is the horse not a picturesque animal, it may 

 be asked, but on account of the sleekness of his ap- 

 pearance? I am persuaded that his sleekness stands in 

 the way of this expression, for the reason that it causes 

 him to be associated with fashion and the pomp and 

 pride of wealth. Hence, it must be allowed that the 

 only horses that have this expression are shaggy ponies 

 and cart-horses. This proves only that their rough ex- 

 terior is t'^e indication of the rusticity of their habits, 

 not that it is an intrinsic quality of the picturesque, 

 which has indeed no intrinsic qualities, like beauty, but 

 depends entirely on associations. Were the case re- 



