134 THE PICTUEESQUE. 



a stranded vessel, a grave, a monument, or some other 

 object allied to humanity. The sea itself, with aU its 

 grandeur and sublimity, is not picturesque; but it is 

 rendered such by a ship or a lighthouse. There is noth- 

 ing of this quality in a naked representation of the 

 polar ices; but add two graves and headstones to the 

 scene, as discovered in a late Arctic Expedition, and 

 the sorrowful human interest thus associated with it ren- 

 ders it picturesque beyond all other objects. The most 

 remarkable scene in nature, if exhibited in a painting, 

 without some domestic animal or human being, a cottage, 

 or some simple work of human hands, would be cold and 

 unaffecting. Thus in poetic descriptions of Nature, she 

 is personified to increase our interest. We personify the 

 sun, the moon, the seasons, the months, and the hours. 

 The personification likewise of abstract ideas, by linking 

 them with humanity, causes them to take a stronger hold 

 on the imagination. 



Hence we may account for the introduction of many 

 circumstances into pictures, that seem trifling and insig- 

 nificant. Of all things in the world, if considered with- 

 out reference to other objects, smoke is the last we should 

 call picturesque. But as the beauty of all this class of 

 objects is merely relative, smoke, when issuing on a still 

 morning from the chimney of a cottage, renders it more 

 lively and poetical, by indicating that it is inhabited and 

 that its inmates are stirring within, and thereby increas- 

 ing its expression of humanity. One of Moore's songs 

 owes its popularity to a picturesque allusion to smoke 

 in the first stanza : — 



" I knew by tlie smoke that so gracefully curled 

 Above the green elms, that a cottage was near ; 

 And I said, ' If there 's peace to be found in the world, 

 The heart that is humble might hope for it here.' " 



Some writers refer the pleasure derived from the sight 



