iSTUDY X. 387 



age, agitated by the waves in every poflible man- 

 ner. In truth, there is no Painter capable of com- 

 pofing fimilar groups, let him give what fcope he 

 pleafes to his imagination. Many of thofe marine 

 harmonies have efcaped me, for I then confidered 

 them as merely the effed of chance. I looked at 

 them, I admired them, but I obferved them not : 

 I fufpefted, however, even then, that the pleafure 

 which their harmonic combination infpired, mull 

 be referable to fome Law with which I was unac- 

 quainted. 



Enough has been faid to demondrate how 

 much Naturalifts have mutilated the fined portion 

 of Natural Hiftory, by retailing, as they for the 

 mod part do, ifolated defcriptions of animals and 

 of plants, without faying a word of the feafon 

 when, and of the place where, they are to be found. 

 By this negligence they drip them of all their 

 beauty ; for there is not an animal, nor a plan ex- 

 iding, whofe harmonic point is not fixed to a cer- 

 tain fituation, to a certain hour of the day, or of 

 the night, to the rifing, or the fetting, of the 

 Sun, to the phafes of the Moon, nay, to the very 

 tempefts ; to fay nothing of the other contrads, 

 and correfpondencies, which refult from thefe. 



I am fo thoroughly perfuaded of the exidence 



of all thofe harmonies, that I entertain not the 



c c 2 flighted 



