objects. So, the character of Italian landscape is curvilinear;
therefore, the outline of the buildings entering into its composition
must be arranged on curvilinear principles, as investigated in Sec. 144.

237. Thirdly. But, if the pervading character can be obtained in the
single object by different means, the contrast will be delightful. Thus,
the elevation of character which the hill districts of Italy possess by
the magnificence of their forms, is transmitted to the villa by its
dignity of detail and simplicity of outline; and the rectangular
interruption to the curve of picturesque blue country, partaking of the
nature of that which it interrupts, is a contrast giving relief and
interest, while any Elizabethan acute angles, on the contrary, would
have been a contrast obtained by the absence of the pervading energy of
the universal curvilinear character, and therefore improper.

238. Fourthly, when the general energy, instead of pervading
simultaneously the multitude of objects, as with one spirit, is
independently possessed and manifested by every individual object, the
result is repetition, not unity; and contrast is not merely agreeable,
but necessary. Thus, a number of objects, forming the line of beauty, is
pervaded by one simple energy; but if that energy is separately
manifested in each, the result is painful monotony. Parallel right
lines, without grouping, are always liable to this objection; and,
therefore, a distant view of a flat country is never beautiful unless
its horizontals are lost in richness of vegetation, as in Lombardy, or
broken with masses of forest, or with distant hills. If none of these
interruptions take place, there is immediate monotony, and no
introduction can be more delightful than such a tower in the distance as
Strasburg, or, indeed, than any architectural combination of verticals.
Peterborough is a beautiful instance of such an adaptation. It is
always, then, to be remembered that repetition is not assimilation.

239. Fifthly, when any attribute is necessarily beautiful, that is,
beautiful in every place and circumstance, we need hardly say that the
contrast consisting in its absence is painful. It is only when beauty is
local or accidental that opposition may be employed.

Sixthly. The _edge_ of all contrasts, so to speak, should be as soft as
is consistent with decisive effect. We mean, that a gradual change is
better than instantaneous transfiguration; for, though always l