MARCH. 121 



There is a wood in my native town, in which I have often 

 got bewildered, on account of the number and intricacy of 

 the paths that have been made through it in different direc- 

 tions. These intricacies have caused the wood to seem 

 to most people who have frequented it a great deal larger 

 than it really is ; and I well recollect my own surprise, on 

 seeing its actual comparative dimensions projected on a map. 

 The paths, by leading one along in miscellaneous courses, 

 and in various directions, and being soon lost upon the sight 

 after one had passed over them, on account of intervening 

 thickets, knolls and elevations, prevent the traveller from re- 

 alizing how closely he is confined to a very small space. If 

 the visitor, under these circumstances, were conducted over 

 paths whose united lengths would measure two or three 

 miles, it would be difficult to convince him, if such were the 

 truth, that he had not stepped beyond the limits of a (ew acres. 

 The delusion is created by leading one to suppose that he is 

 making progress while he is unconsciously travelling to and 

 fro, and often crossing his former track, within a very limited 

 space. 



All these entanglements may agreeably deceive the mind, 

 unless, from an eminence, the real extent of the tract should 

 be revealed to sight. For the perfection of such an illusion, 

 objects and scenes should be multiplied without being crowd- 

 ed. Wherever they are crowded the spot partakes of the 

 character of unity, as in open vale or continuous forest. In 

 the wood I have named, there is a happy mixture of lawn, 

 grove and ticket ; and in no case does any opening disclose 

 the boundaries of the tract. When man undertakes to imi- 

 tate these charming results of nature and accident, he often 

 fails by creating appearances too plainly evincing design : for 

 when we imitate nature only in her irregularities, and omit 

 the remaining one thousand and one details which are equally 

 important, we lay all our works open to suspicion. A success- 

 ful imitation of these results cannot be made without taking 

 one's lessons from nature herself, and copying those scenes in 

 which the hand of the rustic, without any design except 

 that of opening passages through a wood for his own conven- 



VOL. XXI. NO. III. 16 



