It is not the true, but the desirable impression which is to be
conveyed; and it must not be in one, but in both: the building must not
be overwhelmed by the mass of the mountain, nor the precipice mocked by
the elevation of the cottage. (Proportion of color is a question of
quite a different nature, dependent merely on admixture and
combination).
[Footnote 48: This position, as well as the two preceding, is important,
and in need of confirmation. It has often been observed, that, when the
eye is altogether unpracticed in estimating elevation, it believes every
point to be lower than it really is; but this does not militate against
the proposition, for it is also well known, that the higher the point,
the greater the deception. But when the eye is thoroughly practiced in
mountain measurement, although the judgment, arguing from technical
knowledge, gives a true result, the impression on the feelings is always
at variance with it, except in hills of the middle height. We are
perpetually astonished, in our own country, by the sublime impression
left by such hills as Skiddaw, or Cader Idris, or Ben Venue; perpetually
vexed, in Switzerland, by finding that, setting aside circumstances of
form and color, the abstract impression of elevation is (except in some
moments of peculiar effect, worth a king's ransom) inferior to the
truth.
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