bid state of mind, a reaction of a peculiarly melancholy
character, because consequent, not upon the absence of that which once
caused excitement, but upon the failure of its power.[43] This is not
the case with all men; but with those over whom the sublimity of an
unchanging scene can retain its power forever, we have nothing to do;
for they know better than any architect can, how to choose their scene,
and how to add to its effect; we have only to impress upon them the
propriety of thinking before they build, and of keeping their humors
under the control of their judgment.

[Footnote 43: [Compare _Modern Painters_. vol. III. chap. x. Sec. 15.]]

215. It is not of them, but of the man of average intellect, that we are
thinking throughout all these papers; and upon him it cannot be too
strongly impressed, that there are very few points in a hill country at
all adapted for a permanent residence. There is a kind of instinct,
indeed, by which men become aware of this, and shrink from the sterner
features of hill scenery into the parts possessing a human interest; and
thus we find the north side of the Lake Leman, from Vevay to Geneva,
which is about as monotonous a bit of vine-country as any in Europe,
studded with villas; while the south side, which is as exquisite a piece
of scenery as is to be found in all Switzerland, possesses, we think,
two. The instinct in this case is true; but we frequently find it in
error. Thus, the Lake of Como is the resort of half Italy, while the
Lago Maggiore possesses scarcely one villa of importance, besides those
on the Borromean Islands. Yet the Lago Maggiore is far better adapted
for producing and sustaining a pleasurable impression, than that of
Como.

216. The first thing, then, which the architect has to do in hill
country is to bring his employer down from heroics to common sense; to
teach him that, although it might be very well for a man like Pliny,[44]
whose whole spirit and life was wrapt up in that of Nature, to set
himself down under the splash of a cascade 400 feet high, such escapades
are not becoming in English gentlemen; and that it is necessary, for his
own satisfaction, as well as that of others, that he should keep in the
most quiet and least pretending corners of the landscape which he has
chosen.

[Footnote 44: [This passage seems to suggest that the Villa Pliniana on
Como was built by Pliny. It was, however, the work of an antiquarian
nobleman of the Renaissance