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conceived to afford, between the respective 

 beauty of young trees in their different de- 

 grees of growth, opposed to those which 

 have nearly attained their full size,and that 

 of children of different ages, compared with 

 the form of men and women when it has 

 acquired its full perfection. In the early 

 state of many trees, there are particular 

 circumstances of beauty which they after- 

 wards lose ; such, for instance, as the 

 smoothness of their bark ; but in point 

 of form, the very circumstance of rapid 

 growth, though extremely pleasing in other 

 respects, often produces a comparatively 

 straggling outline ; whereas in full-grown 

 trees, the shoots being less luxuriant and 

 more connected with each other, the whole 

 has a greater fulness of form, a more gradual 

 variation in the general outline, and a richer 

 and more clustering effect in the different 

 parts. Much in the same manner,xjiildren, 

 and the unformed youth of both sexes, have 

 generally more delicate skins and complex- 

 ions, than when their growth is completed; 



