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seems to nic that, according to the spirit of 

 both these writers, beauty, as a distinct cha- 

 racter, may he said more generally to arise 

 from soft insensible transitions than from 

 any other cause; and that this circumstance 

 of insensible transition, (which cannot be 

 expressed by any one word) is the most 

 comprehensive principle of visible beauty 

 in its strictest acceptation : as not Ix^ing 

 confined to lines or cun^es of any kind, and 

 as extending, not only to tbmi, but to co- 

 lour, to light and shadow, and to every com- 

 bination of them ; that is, to all visible na- 

 ture. Smoothness and flowing lines do 

 most commonly produce insensible transi- 

 tions; and it is chiefly on that account that 

 they are principles of beauty: but if partial 

 and comparative roughness and abruptness, 

 as is frequently the ease in thewooded banks 

 of rivePS,should more eftcctually promote that 

 end, whoever destroys them, and makes the 

 whole smooth and flowing, Avill destroy the 

 component parts of beauty. For instance, 

 a bank of mowed, or of closely-bitten grass, 

 is clearly nmch smoother thai; one, on 



