Page:Historical Lectures and Addresses.djvu/307

 charm. Mountains can be studied in England as well as in Switzerland; it is not their size but very often their fine lines and forms which give the greatest delight. And so with other things. The more we can see at one glance, the more we can take in at one moment, the more we shall gain. The æsthetic suggestiveness of different countries of course varies greatly, but each has its special charm. People rave about the colouring of Italy or the colouring of Egypt. Have they observed the colouring of London? From Westminster Bridge very often sunsets can be seen which may be classed with the finest effects of light in other countries.

Again, probably the most subtle thing to notice in the study of nature is the gradation by which one kind of scenery merges into another. In this respect England is absolutely unrivalled. Nowhere else are hill and plain so intermixed, and nowhere so well as along the little rivers of England can we see those beautiful gradations by which one kind of scenery passes to another. I venture to think that from the æsthetic point of view no country gives you more ideas, or gives you a greater power of drawing on those ideas than does England.

We pass from the consideration of nature by herself to the consideration of the traces of man's habitation, and these are to be seen in their permanent form in architecture. There is no art which is so illustrative of the past as is architecture, no art which should be so significant to us in these days. There is no art which is so splendid as architecture, no art which is so democratic. It expresses the great permanent ideas