IRocfts 177 



paniments accordingly is the utmost ambition of art 

 when rocks are the subject. 



" Their most distinguished characters are dignity, 

 terror, and fancy: the expression of all is constantly 

 wild ; and sometimes a rocky scene is only wild, with- 

 out pretension to any particular character. 



" Art may interpose to show these large parts to the 

 eye, and magnify them to the imagination, by taking 

 away thickets which stretch quite across the rocks, 

 so as to disguise their dimensions, or by filling with 

 wood the small intervals between them, and thus by 

 concealing the want, preserving the appearance of 

 continuation. When rocks retire from the eye down a 

 gradual declivity, we can, by raising the upper ground, 

 deepen the fall, lengthen the perspective, and give 

 both height and extent to those at a distance: this 

 effect may still be increased by covering the upper 

 ground with a thicket, which shall cease, or be lowered, 

 as it descends. 



" A thicket on other occasions makes the rocks which 

 rise out of it seem larger than they are ; if they stand 

 on the bank overspread with shrubs, their beginning 

 is at least uncertain, and the presumption is that 

 they start from the bottom. 



" Rocks are seldom remarkable for the elegance of 

 their forms ; they are too vast and too rude to pretend 

 to delicacy; but their shapes are often agreeable; 

 and we can affect those shapes to a certain degree, at 

 least we can cover many blemishes in them, by con- 

 ducting the growth of shrubbery and creeping plants 



