STUDY V. 



279 



preferred them to the vafl deferts with which they 

 are furrounded, though not expofed to inunda- 

 tions. 



We fee order only where we can fee corn grow. 

 The habit which we have acquired of confining 

 the channels of our rivers within dikes and mounds, 

 of gravelling, and paving our high roads, of ap- 

 plying the ftraight line to the alleys in our gar- 

 dens, and to our bafons of water, of fquaring our 

 parterres, nay, our very trees, accuftoms us infen- 

 fibly to conlider every thing which deviates from 

 our reftangles, as abandoned to confufion. But 

 it is in places with which we have been tampering, 

 that we frequently fee real diforder. We fet foun- 

 tains a playing on the tops of mountains ; we plant 

 poplars and limes upon rocks ; we throw our 

 vineyards into valleys, and raife our meadows to 

 the decHvities of hills. 



Let thefe laborious exertions be relaxed ever fo 

 little, and all thefe petty levellings will prefently 

 be confounded under the general levelling of Con- 

 tinents, and all this culture, the work of Man, 

 difappears before that of Nature. Our Ilieets of 

 water degenerate into marflies; our hedge-row 

 elms burfl into luxuriancy ; every bower is chok- 

 ed, every avenue clofes : the vegetables natural 

 to each foil declare war againft the ftrangers j the 



T 4 ftarry 



