DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30790#0267
I 237 3
in one immenfe folid wall, quite down to the
level below,—all imprefs grand and awful
ideas.
As I have in a former part made intri-
cacy a characteriftic mark of the pibturefque,
I may poliibly be accufed of inconfiftency
in making it alfo a caufe of grandeur. It
might be fufficient to fay, that there are
other qualities common to the fublime and
to the piciurefque, fuch as roughnefs and
abruptnefs; and that therefore intricacy
might be in the fame clafs. I ffiall not, how-
ever, be fatished with that general defence,
but ffiall endeavour to account in a more
fatisfa<5fc>ry manner, for this feeming incon-
filtency. There appear to be various degrees
and ftyies of intricacy. Hogarth, for inftance,
in fpeaking of the effe6t of thofe waving lines
which fteal from the eye, and lead it a kind
of wanton chace, has termed it the beauty
of intricacy: that I have endeavoured to
diftinguiffi from the more fudden and abrupt
kind
in one immenfe folid wall, quite down to the
level below,—all imprefs grand and awful
ideas.
As I have in a former part made intri-
cacy a characteriftic mark of the pibturefque,
I may poliibly be accufed of inconfiftency
in making it alfo a caufe of grandeur. It
might be fufficient to fay, that there are
other qualities common to the fublime and
to the piciurefque, fuch as roughnefs and
abruptnefs; and that therefore intricacy
might be in the fame clafs. I ffiall not, how-
ever, be fatished with that general defence,
but ffiall endeavour to account in a more
fatisfa<5fc>ry manner, for this feeming incon-
filtency. There appear to be various degrees
and ftyies of intricacy. Hogarth, for inftance,
in fpeaking of the effe6t of thofe waving lines
which fteal from the eye, and lead it a kind
of wanton chace, has termed it the beauty
of intricacy: that I have endeavoured to
diftinguiffi from the more fudden and abrupt
kind