200 



I conceive might be called with equal pro- 

 priety, the sublime of intricacy. 



When suspense and uncertainty are pro- 

 duced by the abrupt intricacy of objects 

 divested of grandeur, they are merely amus- 

 ing to the mind, and their effect simply pic- 

 turesque.* But where the objects are such 

 as are capable of inspiring awe or terror, 

 there suspense and uncertainty are power- 

 ful causes of the sublime; and intricacy may 

 by those means, create no less grand effects, 

 than uniformity and succession. An ave- 

 nue of large and lofty trees, forming a con- 

 tinued arch, and terminated by the gateway 

 of a massive tower, is a specimen, and no 

 mean one, of the grandeur arising from suc- 

 cession and uniformity. On the other hand, 

 many forest scenes are no less striking ex- 

 amples of the grandeur of intricacy. In the 

 avenue, all is simple and uniform in the 

 highest degree, and the eye is totally fixed 

 to one point, to one focus. In the forest 

 scene, trees of different shapes and sizes, 

 cross each other in numberless directions ; 



* Essay on the Picturesque, chap. 4. 



