256 



of architecture appear, or even of human 

 habitation. He seems to have thought our 

 puny efforts, unworthy of being allied with 

 those vast piles of stone, the savage gran- 

 deur of which his pencil alone has truly 

 exhibited ; and that the dens and caverns 

 which tbey afford, were the proper dwell- 

 ings for the savage race, whom he has 

 placed amidst such scenes. But, besides 

 these reasons, drawn from the poetry of his 

 art, he might have had others, more imme- 

 diately drawn from the art itself, which may 

 help to confirm my conjectures with respect 

 to Claude and Caspar. It is obvious that 

 any building of G recian architecture, either 

 entire, or ruined, would have been out of 

 character in such scenes ; cottages, and 

 hovels, however picturesque, too mean and 

 familiar : mined castles and towers -appear 

 to be the buildings most analogous ; but 

 the same reasons that possibly inducedGas- 

 par to avoid ruins, would act with double 

 force upon S. Rosa. It is, however, very 

 certain, that the same touch, which so. pow- 

 erfully characterized the solid masses and 



