The Beauty of Trees 
highly valued than any other element in 
landscape-painting ; but it is more con- 
spicuously true of the pictures of elder gen- 
erations. The great classic masters of land- 
scape — Claude, for instance, and Poussin 
and Ruysdael, and also the great modern 
master Corot, — give admirable lessons to 
the student of beautiful forms ; and, fortu- 
nately, their works can be as profitably con- 
sulted by him in engraved reproductions 
as on the actual canvas. Of course, they 
should not be consulted as text-books but 
as stimulants and explanations, as cultivators 
of taste, as teachers of what is meant by 
beautiful associations, by strong or graceful 
contours, by effective or subtile contrasts 
of light and shadow, by satisfactory con- 
trasts of textures — by variety in unity, by 
diversity in harmony, by dignity, breadth, 
simplicity, repose, and charm. These are 
the things they teach, not just what or how 
to plant in any possible given case ; but 
these are the things we must learn in advance 
of any planting, if we are to make a work of 
art of our result. 
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