■ 146 



it ought to hold : but I am now more par- 

 ticularly called upon to support its re- 

 spectability, since you attack the very 

 existence of that profession, at the head 

 of which, both you and Mr. Knight have 

 the goodness to say that I am deservedly 

 placed. 

 Landscape Your ucw thcory of deducing Land- 



a happy"^' scupc Gai'demng from pa'mting is so plausi- 

 me mm. ^^^^ t\\2itj like uiauy other philosophic 

 theories, it may captivate and mislead, 

 unless duly examined by the test of ex- 

 perience and practice. I cannot help 

 seeing great affinity betwixt deducing 

 gardening from the painter's studies of 

 wild nature, and deducing government 

 from the uncontrouled opinions of man 

 in a savage state. The neatness, simpli- 

 city, and elegance of English gardening, 

 have acquired the approbation of mo- 

 dern times, as the happy medium be- 

 twixt the wildness of nature and the stiff- 

 ness of art; in the same manner as the 

 English constitution is the happy medium 

 betwixt the liberty of savages, and the 

 restraint of despotic government; but so 



