7 



seems to mean, if it mean any tiling, that 

 pieces of artificial water, as they have ge- 

 nerally been made, of one equal verdure 

 and smoothness, look as if they were the 

 immediate productions of the Creator;* 

 while natural lakes and rivers, the banks of 

 which must always be partially worn and 

 broken, shew nature in a dwindled and 

 shrivelled condition. 



How this earth did look when it was 

 first created, or how nature then performed 

 her operations, it would be as useless, as 

 it is impossible to know. All we are con- 

 cerned in, is the present appearance of 

 things, and her present operations, — the 

 constant tendency of which,, so opposite 

 to the supposed improvements of art, is to 

 banish, not to create monotony; and we 

 really might as well reason on a supposed 



* 1 remember having been told by a person of great ve- 

 racity, (and who, if I am not mistaken, was present at the 

 conversation,) that Mr. Brown, on some of his works being 

 commended, had said, " None but your Browns and your 

 " God Almighties can do such things as these." Mr. 

 Mason seems to have justified the pretension contained in 

 this blasphemous piece of arrogance. 



