h, or washed down
by some minor stream, which has interrupted this curve, and is now used
as a landing-place for the boats, and for embarkation of merchandise, of
which some bales and bundles are laid in a heap, immediately beneath the
great tower. A common composer would have put these bales to one side or
the other, but Turner knows better; he uses them as a foundation for his
tower, adding to its importance precisely as the sculptured base adorns
a pillar; and he farther increases the aspect of its height by throwing
the reflection of it far down in the nearer water. All the great
composers have this same feeling about sustaining their vertical masses:
you will constantly find Prout using the artifice most dexterously (see,
for instance, the figure with the wheelbarrow under the great tower, in
the sketch of St. Nicolas, at Prague, and the white group of figures
under the tower in the sketch of Augsburg[256]); and Veronese, Titian,
and Tintoret continually put their principal figures at bases of
pillars. Turner found out their secret very early, the most prominent
instance of his composition on this principle being the drawing of Turin
from the Superga, in Hakewell's Italy.

I chose Fig. 20., already given to illustrate foliage drawing, chiefly
because, being another instance of precisely the same arrangement, it
will serve to convince you of its being intentional. There, the
vertical, formed by the larger tree, is continued by the figure of the
farmer, and that of one of the smaller trees by his stick. The lines of
the interior mass of the bushes radiate, under the law of radiation,
from a point behind the farmer's head; but their outline curves are
carried on and repeated, under the law of continuity, by the curves of
the dog and boy--by the way, note the remarkable instance in these of
the use of darkest lines towards the light;--all more or less guiding
the eye up to the right, in order to bring it finally to the Keep of
Windsor, which is the central object of the picture, as the bridge tower
is in the Coblentz. The wall on which the boy climbs answers the purpose
of contrasting, both in direction and character, with these greater
curves; thus corresponding as nearly as possible to the minor tongue of
land in the Coblentz. This, however, introduces us to another law, which
we must consider separately.

6. THE LAW OF CONTRAST.

Of course the character of everything is best manifested by Contrast.
Rest can onl