andeur as it is of truth, of beauty as of propriety.
Every alteration of the features of nature has its origin either in
powerless indolence or blind audacity, in the folly which forgets, or
the insolence which desecrates, works which it is the pride of angels to
know, and their privilege to love.

We sometimes hear such infringement of universal laws justified on the
plea, that the frequent introduction of mythological abstractions into
ancient landscape requires an imaginary character of form in the
material objects with which they are associated. Something of this kind
is hinted in Reynolds's 14th Discourse; but nothing can be more false
than such reasoning. If there be any truth or beauty in the original
conception of the spiritual being so introduced, there must be a true
and real connection between that abstract idea[H] and the features of
nature as she was and is. The woods and waters which were peopled by the
Greek with typical life were not different from those which now wave and
murmur by the ruins of his shrines. With their visible and actual forms
was his imagination filled, and the beauty of its incarnate creatures
can only be understood among the pure realities which originally
modelled their conception. If divinity be stamped upon the features, or
apparent in the form of the spiritual creature, the mind will not be
shocked by its appearing to ride upon the whirlwind, and trample on the
storm; but if mortality, no violation of the characters of the earth
will forge one single link to bind it to the heaven.

Is there then no such thing as elevated ideal character of landscape?
Undoubtedly; and Sir Joshua, with the great master of this character,
Nicolo Poussin, present to his thoughts, ought to have arrived at more
true conclusions respecting its essence than, as we shall presently see,
are deducible from his works. The true ideal of landscape is precisely
the same as that of the human form; it is the expression of the
specific--not the individual, but the specific--characters of every
object, in their perfection; there is an ideal form of every herb,
flower, and tree: it is that form to which every individual of the
species has a tendency to arrive, freed from the influence of accident
or disease. Every landscape painter should know the specific characters
of every object he has to represent, rock, flower, or cloud; and in his
highest ideal works, all their distinctions will be perfectly expressed,
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