( i66 ) 



cxpedt a fcene of this kind in {o retired 

 a place j it feemed as if the adventurers, who 

 had failed up the river, had landed here either 

 to refit their fhips, or to build others for the 

 purpofe of purfuing their difcoveries. 



Miratur nemus infuetum fulgentia longc 

 Scuta virum fluvio, piftafque innare carinas. 



The idea of a wild country, in a natural 

 ftate, however pifturefque, is to the generality 

 of people but an unplealing one. There are 

 few, who do not prefer the bufy fcenes of 

 cultivation to the grandefl of nature's rough 

 produ(5tions. In general indeed, when we 

 meet with a defcription of a plealing country, 

 we hear of hay-cocks, or waving corn-fields, 

 or labourers at their plough, or other cir- 

 cumftances and objedts, which the pidurefque 

 eye always wiflies to exclude. The cafe is, 

 the fpedtator fympathifes in the joys of a 

 country, which arife from the profpedt of 

 plenty -, and aiibciating thefe ideas with the 

 country itfelf, he calls it pi^urefque -, by 

 which he means only that it pleafes him, 



Thus too in the grand, and fublime 



fcenes of nature, if there be any mixture of 



horror 



