35 



itraiiied, may be allowed to go much (hT' 

 tliei- than the painter; and this is a point 

 uhicli deserves to be discussed. 



Landscape-painters have availed them- 

 selves of all the varieties which suited their 

 art ; but in a painted landscape, the detail 

 must always be subordinate to the general 

 effect. It often happens that in a real 

 fore-ground numberless circumstances 

 give delight which the painter in a great 

 degree suppresses ; because they would 

 not accord with the intentional neglect 

 of detail in the general style and conduct 

 of his picture, nor yet with the scale of it, 

 compared with that of real scenery. But 

 the improver, who works with the mate- 

 rials of nature, may venture, though still 

 with caution, to indulge himself in her li- 

 berties ; he may give to particular parts 

 the highest decree of enrichment, that 

 rocks, stones, roots, mosses, w^ith flowering 

 and trailing plants, of close or of loose tex- 

 ture, can create, without the same danger 

 which the painter incurs, of injuring the 

 whole. Such parts, when viewed at a dis- 



VOL. u. D 



