60 



OF PAINTING. 



BOOK I. 



forced into formal shapes, except in hedges, which are regu- 

 larly shorn for particular purposes of utility ; and his turf is 

 only made smooth, and the fern rooted out, in the Ferme omSe, 

 or where the utility of the pasture is intended to prevail over 

 the effect of the foreground scenery. 



A similar revolution will take place in the taste of a mason 

 after studying painting. Instead of endeavouring to shew his 

 skill in the five orders upon every occasion ; instead of crowd- 

 ing together ornaments which have no reference to utility, or 

 decorating a cottage or villa with the appendages or parts ap- 

 propriated to the palace or the temple, he studies first the use, 

 and then the character of his subject. He makes simplicity 

 the prevailing idea in a cottage, elegance in a villa, and gran- 

 deur in a castle : these qualities in each he combines with use ; 

 and thus, from a mere builder, he becomes an architect. 



2. The next advantage resulting from painting- is the power 

 of discriminating character. At first, the mind naturally thinks 

 only of parts. Now it views these parts in relation to a 

 whole ; judges of their agreement or disagreement, of their 

 general effect, and of their distinguishing characteristics. This 

 is of great advantage, by enabling us first to discover the ten- 

 dency of any scene to a particular character; and then to 

 heighten or complete that character, by the addition of such 



