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but the limbs, during that state of increase, 

 have seldom that fulness, that just symme- 

 try and connection with each other, so ne- 

 cessary to perfect beauty. 



I must own it strikes me, that if there be 

 any one position on this subject likely to be 

 generally admitted, it is, that each production 

 of nature is most beautiful in that particular 

 state, before which her work would have ap- 

 peared incomplete and unfinished, and after 

 which it would seem to be tending, however 

 gradually, towards decay. It may, perhaps, 

 be doubted, how far the complete state, 

 whether in animals or vegetables, is the 

 precise moment of beauty; some may think 

 it a little before the perfect expansion, 

 though none after ; but in my opinion, 



Crude is the bud, and stale the fading flower. 



On Venus' breast the full-expanded rose, 



Alone with all its sweets, and all its richness, glows. 



This state of full expansion and comple- 

 tion'in the works of nature, may, I think, be 

 admitted as a general criterion ; and from 

 observing the qualities which are more com- 



