point connected with the management of colour, under the head "Law of
Harmony."

[245] See farther, on this subject, "Modern Painters," vol. iv. chap.
viii Sec. 6.

[246] "In general, throughout Nature, reflection and repetition are
peaceful things, associated with the idea of quiet succession in events,
that one day should be like another day, or one history the repetition
of another history, being more or less results of quietness, while
dissimilarity and non-succession are results of interference and
disquietude. Thus, though an echo actually increases the quantity of
sound heard, its repetition of the note or syllable gives an idea of
calmness attainable in no other way; hence also the feeling of calm
given to a landscape by the voice of a cuckoo."

[247] This is obscure in the rude woodcut, the masts being so delicate
that they are confused among the lines of reflection. In the original
they have orange light upon them, relieved against purple behind.

[248] The cost of art in getting a bridge level is _always_ lost, for
you must get up to the height of the central arch at any rate, and you
only can make the whole bridge level by putting the hill farther back,
and pretending to have got rid of it when you have not, but have only
wasted money in building an unnecessary embankment. Of course, the
bridge should not be difficultly or dangerously steep, but the necessary
slope, whatever it may be, should be in the bridge itself, as far as the
bridge can take it, and not pushed aside into the approach, as in our
Waterloo road; the only rational excuse for doing which is that when the
slope must be long it is inconvenient to put on a drag at the top of the
bridge, and that any restiveness of the horse is more dangerous on the
bridge than on the embankment. To this I answer: first, it is not more
dangerous in reality, though it looks so, for the bridge is always
guarded by an effective parapet, but the embankment is sure to have no
parapet, or only a useless rail; and secondly, that it is better to have
the slope on the bridge, and make the roadway wide in proportion, so as
to be quite safe, because a little waste of space on the river is no
loss, but your wide embankment at the side loses good ground; and so my
picturesque bridges are right as well as beautiful, and I hope to see
them built again some day, instead of the frightful straight-backed
things which we fancy are fine, and accept from the pontifical
rigidit