54 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
Hence we find all Beautiful forms characterized by curved 
and flowing lines — lines expressive of infinity,* of grace, 
and willing obedience : and all Picturesque forms character 
ized by irregular and broken lines — lines expressive of vio- 
lence, abrupt action, and partial disobedience, a strug- 
gling of the idea with the substance or the condition of its 
being. The Beautiful is an idea of beauty calmly and har- 
moniously expressed ; the Picturesque an idea of beauty or 
power strongly and irregularly expressed. As an example 
of the Beautiful in other arts we refer to the Apollo of the 
Vatican ; as an example of the Picturesque, to the Laocoon 
or the Dying Gladiator. In nature we would place before 
the reader a finely formed elm or chestnut, whose wel 
balanced head is supported on a trunk full of symmetry and 
dignity, and whose branches almost sweep the turf in their 
rich luxuriance ; as a picturesque contrast, some pine or 
larch, whose gnarled roots grasp the rocky crag on which it 
grows, and whose wild and irregular branches tell of the 
storm and tempest that it has so often struggled against.f 
In pictures, too, one often hears the Beautiful confounded 
with the Picturesque. Yet they are quite distinct ; though 
in many subjects they may be found harmoniously com- 
bined. Some of Raphael^ angels may be taken as perfect 
illustrations of the Beautiful. In their serene and heavenly 
* Hogarth called the curve the line of beauty, and all artists have felt instinct- 
vely its power, but Mr. Ruskin (in Modern Painters) was, we believe, the 
first to suggest the cause of that power — that it expresses in its varying ten- 
dencies. the infinite. 
f This also explains why trees, though they retain for the most part their 
characteristic forms, vary somewhat in expression according to their situation. 
Thus the larch, though always picturesque, is far more so in mountain ridges 
where it is exposed to every blast, than in sheltered lawns where it only finds 
juft airs and sunshine. 
