, and merely named after the great
naturalist, who was born, perhaps, at Como, and mentions an ebbing
spring on this site.]]

217. Having got his employer well under control, he has two points to
consider. First, where he will spoil least; and, secondly, where he will
gain most.

Now he may spoil a landscape in two ways: either by destroying an
association connected with it, or a beauty inherent in it. With the
first barbarism we have nothing to do; for it is one which would not be
permitted on a large scale; and even if it were, could not be
perpetrated by any man of the slightest education. No one, having any
pretensions to be called a human being, would build himself a house on
the meadow of the Ruetli, or by the farm of La Haye Sainte, or on the
lonely isle on Loch Katrine. Of the injustice of the second barbarism we
have spoken already; and it is the object of this paper to show how it
may be avoided, as well as to develop the principles by which we may be
guided in the second question; that of ascertaining how much permanent
pleasure will be received from the contemplation of a given scene.

218. It is very fortunate that the result of these several
investigations will generally be found the same. The residence which in
the end is found altogether delightful, will be found to have been
placed where it has committed no injury; and therefore the best way of
consulting our own convenience in the end is, to consult the feelings
of the spectator in the beginning.[45] Now, the first grand rule for the
choice of situation is, never to build a villa where the ground is not
richly productive. It is not enough that it should be capable of
producing a crop of scanty oats or turnips in a fine season; it must be
rich and luxuriant, and glowing with vegetative power of one kind or
another.[46] For the very chiefest[47] part of the character of the
edifice of pleasure is, and must be, its perfect ease, its appearance of
felicitous repose. This it can never have where the nature and
expression of the land near it reminds us of the necessity of labor, and
where the earth is niggardly of all that constitutes its beauty and our
pleasure; this it can only have where the presence of man seems the
natural consequence of an ample provision for his enjoyment, not the
continuous struggle of suffering existence with a rude heaven and rugged
soil. There is nobility in such a struggle, but not when it is
maintained by the inhabitant of th