Wherever
the large villa comes, it takes up one of these beginnings of landscape
altogether; and the parts of crag or wood, which ought to combine with
it, become subservient to it, and lost in its general effect; that is,
ordinarily, in a general effect of ugliness. This should never be the
case: however intrinsically beautiful the edifice may be, it should
assist, but not supersede; join, but not eclipse; appear, but not
intrude.
224. The general rule by which we are to determine the size is, to
select the largest mass which will not overwhelm any object of fine
form, within two hundred yards of it; and if it does not do this, we may
be quite sure it is not too large for the distant features: for it is
one of Nature's most beautiful adaptations, that she is never out of
proportion with herself; that is, the minor details of scenery of the
first class bear exactly the proportion to the same species of detail in
scenery of the second class, that the large features of the first bear
to the large features of the second. Every mineralogist knows that the
quartz of the St. Gothard is as much larger in its crystal than the
quartz of Snowdon, as the peak of the one mountain overtops the peak of
the other; and that the crystals of the Andes are larger than
either.[49] Every artist knows that the bowlders of an Alpine
foreground, and the leaps of an Alpine stream, are as much larger than
the bowlders, and as much bolder than the leaps, of a Cumberland
foreground and torrent, as the Jungfrau is higher than Skiddaw.
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