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and in the earth, and fee fome of this vifionary beauty poured out upon the whole creation; but what a rough unfightly sketch of nature should we be entertained with, did all her colouring difappear, and the feveral diftinctions of light and shade vanish? In thort, our fouls are at prefent delightfully soft and bewildered in a pleafing delufion, and we walk about like the enchanted heroe in a romance, who fees beautiful caftles, wood and mea. dows; and at the fame time hears the warbling of birds, and the purling of treams; but upon the finishing of fome fecret fpell, the fantaftic fcene breaks up, and the difconfolate knight finds himself on a barren heath, orin a folitary defart. It is not improbable that fomething like this may be the fate of the foul after its first separation, in refpect of the images it will receive from matter, tho' indeed the ideas of colours are fo pleafing and beautiful in the imagination, that it is poffible the foul will not be deprived of them but perhaps find them excited by fome other occafional caufe, as they are at prefent by the different impreffions of the subtle matter on the organ of fight.

I have here oppofed that my reader is acquainted with that great modern difcovery, which is at present univerfally acknowledged by all the inquirers into natural philofophy: namely, that light and colours, as apprehended by the imagination, are only ideas in the mind, and not qualities that have any existence in matter. As this is a truth that has been proved inconteftably by many modern philofophers, and is indeed one of the fineft fpeculations in that fcience, if the English reader would fee the notion explained at large, he may find it in the eighth chapter of the fecond book of Mr. Locke's Effay on Human Understanding.

Wednesday,

N° 414

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Wednesday, June 25.

Alterius fic

Altera pofcit opem res, & conjurat amicè.

Hor. Ars Poet. v. 411.

But mutually they need each other's help.

ROSCOMMON.

F we confider the works of Nature and Art, as they are qualified to entertain the imagination, we fhall find the laft very defective, in comparifon of the former; for though they may fometimes appear as beautiful or ftrange, they can have nothing in them of that vaftness and immenfity, which afford fo great an entertainment to the mind of the beholder. The one may be as polite and delicate as the other, but can never fhew herself so auguft and magnificent in the defign. There is fomething more bold and masterly in the rough carelefs ftrokes of nature, than in the nice touches and embellishments of art. The beauties of the moft ftately garden or palace lie in a narrow compafs, the imagination immediately runs them over, and requires fomething elfe to gratify her; but in the wide fields of nature, the fight wanders up and down without confinement, and is fed with an infinite variety of images, without any certain flint or number. For this reafon we always find the poet in love with the country life, where nature appears in the greatest perfection, and furnishes out all those fcenes that are most apt to delight the imagination.

Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus, & fugit urbes.
Hor. Ep. 2. 1. 2. v. 77.

To grottoes and to groves we run,
To eafe and filence ev'ry Mufe's fon.
Hic fecura quies, nefcia fallere vita,
Dives opum variarum, hic latis otia fundis,
VOL. VI.

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'Pors.

Spelunce,

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Spelunca, vivique lacus; hic frigida tempe,
Mugitufque boum, mollefque fub arbore fomni.
Virg. Georg. 1. 2. v. 467.

Here eafy quiet, a fecure retreat,

A harmless life that knows not how to cheat,
With home-bred plenty the rich owner bless,
And rural pleasures crown his happiness.
Unvex'd with quarrels, undisturb'd with noife,
The country king his peaceful realm enjoys:
Cool grots, and living lakes, the flow'ry pride
Of meads, and ftreams that through the valley glide;
And fhady groves that easy sleep invite,

And, after toilfom days, a short repose at night.
DRYDEN.

But tho' there are feveral of those wild fcenes, that are more delightful than any artificial fhows; yet we find the works of nature ftill more pleasant, the more they resemble thofe of art: For in this cafe our pleasure rifes from a double principle; from the agreeableness of the objects to the eye, and from their fimilitude to other objects: We are pleafed as well with comparing their beauties, as with furveying them, and can reprefent them to our minds, either as copies or originals. Hence it is that we take delight in a profpect which is well laid out, and diverfified with fields and meadows, woods and rivers; in those accidental landskips of trees, clouds and cities, that are fometimes found in the veins of marble; in the curious fret-work of rocks and grottoes; and in a word, in any thing that hath fuch a variety or regularity as may feem the effect of defign in what we call the works of chance.

If the products of nature rife in value according as they more or lefs refemble thofe of art, we may be fure that artificial works receive a greater advantage from their resemblance of fuch as are natural; because here the fimilitude is not only pleafant, but the pattern more perfect. The prettieft landskip I ever faw, was one drawn on the walls of a dark room, which stood oppofite on one fide to a navigable river, and on the other to a park. The experiment is very common in optics. Here you might difcover the waves and fluctuations of

the

the water in ftrong and proper colours, with the picture of a fhip entring at one end, and failing by degrees through the whole piece. On another there appeared the green fhadows of trees, waving to and fro with the wind, and herds of deer among them in miniature, leaping about upon the wall. I must confefs, the novelty of fuch a fight may be one occafion of its pleasantnefs to the imagination; but certainly the chief reason is its near resemblance to nature, as it does not only, like other pictures, give the colour and figure, but the motion of the things it reprefents.

We have before obferved, that there is generally in nature fomething more grand and auguft, than what we meet with in the curiofities of art. When, therefore, we fee this imitated in any measure, it gives us a nobler and more exalted kind of pleasure, than what we receive from the nicer and more accurate productions of art. On this account our English gardens are not fo entertaining to the fancy as thofe in France and Italy, where we fee a large extent of ground covered over with an agreeable mixture of garden and foreft, which, reprefent every where an artificial rudeness, much more charming than that neatness and elegancy which we meet with in thofe of our own country. It might, indeed, be of ill confequence to the public, as well as unprofitable to private perfons, to alienate fo much ground from pafturage, and the plough, in many parts of a country that is fo well peopled, and cultivated to a far greater advantage. But why may not a whole estate be thrown into a kind of a garden by frequent plantations, that may turn as much to the profit, as the pleafure of the owner? A marth overgrown with willows, or a mountain shaded with oaks, are not only more beautiful, but more beneficial, than when they lie bare and unadorned. Fields of corn make a pleasant profpect, and if the walks were a little taken care of that lie between them, if the natural embroidery of the meadows were help'd and improved by fome fmall additions of art, and the several rows of hedges fet off by trees and flowers, that the foil was capable of receiving, a man might make a pretty landkip of his own poffeffions.

Writers, who have given us an account of China, tell us the inhabitants of that country laugh at the plantations

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of our Europeans, which are laid out by the rule and line; because they fay, any one may place trees in equal 10ws and uniform figures. They choofe rather to fhew a genius in works of this nature, and therefore always conceal the art by which they direct themselves. They have a word, it feems, in their language, by which they exprefs the particular beauty of a plantation that thus ftrikes the imagination at firft fight, without difcovering what it is that has fo agreeable an effect. Our British gardeners, on the contrary, inftead of humouring nature, love to deviate from it as much as poffible. Our trees rife in cones, globes, and pyramids. We fee the marks of the, fciffars upon every plant and bush. I do not know whe ther I am fingular in my opinion, but for my own part, I would rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy and diffufion of boughs and branches, than when it is thus cut and trimmed into a mathematical figure; and cannot but fancy that an orchard in flower looks infinitely more delightful, than all the little labyrinths of the moft finished parterre. But as our great modellers of gardens have their magazines of plants to difpofe of, it is very natural for them to tear up all the beautiful plantations of fruittrees, and contrive a plan that may moft turn to their own profit, in taking off their evergreens, and the like moveable plants, with which their hops are plentifully tocked.

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Next add our cities of illuftrious name,

- Their coftly labour, and stupendous frame. DRYDEN.

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AVING already fhewn how the fancy is affected by the works of nature, and afterwards confidered in general both the works of nature and of art, how they mutually affift and complete each other

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