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The trees in the pictures of Claude, who 

 studied what was soft and beautiful in na- 

 ture, are almost all of the first kind ; while 

 those of Salvator Rosa, who chose the 

 wildest and most savage views, are as gene- 

 rally of the second : their forms are indeed 

 so sharp and broken, and they are often so 

 destitute of foliage, that a person used only 

 to the full and swelling outlines of rich ve- 

 getation, would scarcely know them to be 

 trees. These last, however, have frequently 

 a grand, generally a striking and peculiar 

 character ; but when we call such broken, 

 diseased and decaying forms (and, I may 

 add, the colours that accompany them) 

 beautiful, either in reality or imitation, we 

 clearly speak in direct opposition to nature; 

 for it is just as unnatural to call an old, de- 

 caying, leafless tree beautiful, as to call a 

 withered, bald, old man or woman, by that 

 most ill-applied term. 



If, from trees, we go to those vegetable 

 productions which nature seems to have 

 taken most pleasure in adorning, we shall 

 perceive that the same undulation prevails. 



