STUDY VI. 341 



more than the art of obferving. Man cannot for- 

 fake the path of Nature, even when he is deter- 

 mined to go wrong. We are wife only with her 

 wifdom : and we play the fool only in proportion 

 as we attempt to derange her plans. 



The graver of Callot, fo prolific of monfters, 

 never patched up fo many frightful demons, as 

 the ill aflbrted members of different animals, the 

 beak of the owl, the jaws of the crocodile, the 

 body of the horfe, the wings of the bat, the 

 fangs and the paws which he has united to the 

 human figure, to render his contrafts more hi- 

 deous. Our female friends, too, who, fweetly ca- 

 pricious, amufe themfelves with embroidering 

 fancy-flowers on the various articles of their 

 drefs, are reduced to the neceffity of borrowing 

 their patterns from the garden. Examine, on 

 their gowns and handkerchiefs, the fportive pro- 

 ductions of their imagination : there you have the 

 flower of the pink, on the foliage of the myrtle ; 

 rofes on the ftalk of the reed ; pomegranates in 

 the place of ears of corn. Nature alone produces 

 none but rational harmonies ; and aflbrts, in both 

 animals and plants only parts adapted to the 

 places, to the air, to the elements, to the ufes, for 

 which flîe has deflined them. Never was a race of 

 monflers beheld ilTuing from the fublimity of her 

 conceptions. 



z ^ I have 



