C »36 3 



in his EfTay, is perfectly juft and in its place, 

 I was curious to fee what ufe you would 

 make of it; and I was greatly furprized to 

 find how you had applied it: I hardly be- 

 lieved it at firft, and fome of my friends had 

 the fame hefitation, till they had read it a 

 fecond time. A landfcape-gzrdener, who is 

 alfo an artift, can find no apter way of il- 

 luftrating the habit of admiring fine pictures 

 and bold picturefque fcenery, than by the 

 habit of chewing tobacco! You fuppofe 

 fuch admiration may have the fame kind of 

 effect on mental tafte, as the ufe of fuch a 

 naufeous herb has on the fenfe of tailing — 

 that of making it infenfible to the beauty 

 of milder fcenes. You, therefore, by a kind 

 of negative affirmation, infmuate that my 

 tafte is vitiated ; not feeling that a habit of 

 obfervation and feleclion, (even fuppofmg it 

 In a great meafure directed towards the 

 higher flyles of painting and of fcenery,) 

 acts very differently on the faculties of the 



mind, 



