[5]
Even Goldsmith regarded the scenery of the Highlands as dismal and
hideous. Johnson, we know, laid it down as an axiom that "the noblest
prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to
England"--a saying which throws much doubt on his distinction that the
Giant's Causeway was "worth seeing but not worth going to see." [6]
Madame de Stael declared, that though she would go 500 leagues to meet a
clever man, she would not care to open her window to see the Bay of
Naples.
Nor was the ancient absence of appreciation confined to scenery. Even
Burke, speaking of Stonehenge, says, "Stonehenge, neither for disposition
nor ornament, has anything admirable."
Ugly scenery, however, may in some cases have an injurious effect on the
human system. It has been ingeniously suggested that what really drove Don
Quixote out of his mind was not the study of his books of chivalry, so
much as the monotonous scenery of La Mancha.
The love of landscape is not indeed due to Art alone.
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