_Vide ante_, Sec. 88.]]
156. First, it is a humorist, an odd, twisted, independent being, with a
great deal of mixed, obstinate, and occasionally absurd originality. It
has one or two graceful lines about it, and several harsh and cutting
ones; it is a whole, which would allow of no unison with any other
architecture; it is gathered in itself, and would look very ugly indeed,
if pieces in a purer style of building were added. All this corresponds
with points of English character, with its humors, its independency, and
its horror of being put out of its own way.
157. Again, it is a thoroughly domestic building, homely and
cottage-like in its prevailing forms, awakening no elevated ideas,
assuming no nobility of form. It has none of the pride, or the grace of
beauty, none of the dignity of delight which we found in the villa of
Italy; but it is a habitation of everyday life, a protection from
momentary inconvenience, covered with stiff efforts at decoration, and
exactly typical of the mind of its inhabitant: not noble in its taste,
not haughty in its recreation, not pure in its perception of beauty; but
domestic in its pleasures, fond of matter-of-fact rather than of
imagination, yet sparkling occasionally with odd wit and grotesque
association. The Italian obtains his beauty, as his recreation, with
quietness, with few and noble lines, with great seriousness and depth of
thought, with very rare interruptions to the simple train of feeling.
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