109. But there is a still more important reason for it, of a directly
contrary nature to that which its formality would seem to require. In
all beautiful designs of exterior descent, a certain regularity is
necessary; the lines should be graceful, but they must balance each
other, slope answering to slope, statue to statue. Now this mathematical
regularity would hurt the eye excessively in the midst of scenes of
natural grace, were it executed in bare stone; but, if we make part of
the design itself foliage, and put in touches of regular shade,
alternating with the stone, whose distances and darkness are as
mathematically limited as the rest of the grouping, but whose nature is
changeful and varied in individual forms, we have obtained a link
between nature and art, a step of transition, leading the feelings
gradually from the beauty of regularity to that of freedom. And this
effect would not be obtained, as might at first appear, by intermingling
trees of different kinds, at irregular distances, or wherever they chose
to grow; for then the design and the foliage would be instantly
separated by the eye, the symmetry of the one would be interrupted, the
grace of the other lost; the nobility of the design would not be seen,
but its formality would be felt; and the wildness of the trees would be
injurious, because it would be felt to be out of place.
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