sick in body, and beloved by
the Gods."[6] And thus, being nowise sure that these things can be
mended at all, and very sure that he knows not how to mend them, and
also that the strange pleasure he feels in them _must_ have some good
reason in the nature of things, he yields to his destiny, enjoys his
dark canal without scruple, and mourns over every improvement in the
town, and every movement made by its sanitary commissioners, as a miser
would over a planned robbery of his chest; in all this being not only
innocent, but even respectable and admirable, compared with the kind of
person who has _no_ pleasure in sights of this kind, but only in fair
facades, trim gardens, and park palings, and who would thrust all
poverty and misery out of his way, collecting it into back alleys, or
sweeping it finally out of the world, so that the street might give
wider play for his chariot wheels, and the breeze less offence to his
nobility.

Sec. 14. Therefore, even the love for the lower picturesque ought to be
cultivated with care, wherever it exists; not with any special view to
artistic, but to merely humane, education. It will never really or
seriously interfere with practical benevolence; on the contrary, it will
constantly lead, if associated with other benevolent principles, to a
truer sympathy with the poor, and better understanding of the right ways
of helping them; and, in the present stage of civilization, it is the
most important element of character, not directly moral, which can be
cultivated in youth; since it is mainly for the want of this feeling
that we destroy so many ancient monuments, in order to erect "handsome"
streets and shops instead, which might just as well have been erected
elsewhere, and whose effect on our minds, so far as they have any, is to
increase every disposition to frivolity, expense, and display.

These, and such other considerations not directly connected with our
subject, I shall, perhaps, be able to press farther at the close of my
work; meantime, we turn to the immediate question, of the distinction
between the lower and higher picturesque, and the artists who pursue
them.

Sec. 15. It is evident, from what has been advanced, that there is no
definite bar of separation between the two; but that the dignity of the
picturesque increases from lower to higher, in exact proportion to the
sympathy of the artist with his subject. And in like manner his own
greatness depends (other things being