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which there are oaks, thorns, and hollies : 

 such trees and bushes, also, break and in- 

 tc iTupt tite continued flow of those sweeps, 

 T\iiioli most nearly approach to what has 

 been called the line of beauty; and cer- 

 tiiinly any abruptnesses in the ground, how- 

 ever slight, are contrary to the idea of 

 beauty in ibi confined sense : yet a river, 

 even with broken ground and with rocks, 

 when they are softened, not concealed by 

 wood, so that the whole is blended together, 

 will not only be more varied, more suited to 

 the painter, and to the genuine lover of na- 

 ture, but will be more strictly beautiful than 

 the finest turf and the most artfully formed 

 cuiTcs, without similar accompaniments of 

 trees and bushes ; for such curvTS, from their 

 distinctness and their nakedness, present no- 

 thing but hard, formal lines. All this to me 

 is a proof, that insensible transitions, and 

 not any particular lines or cun'es, are the 

 means by which beauty in landscape is 

 chietiy effected ; for I will venture to assert, 

 that whenever in natitml scenery a line of 

 beauty is made by rule, it will rfiost ai* 

 H 2 



