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Such opposite defects might perhaps be 

 avoided, and such opposite beauties be 

 united, were improvers to observe, and 

 even to analyze those banks of natural 

 lakes and rivers, in which such beauties, 

 without the defects, do exist. No one can 

 doubt that there are natural banks of a 

 moderate height, where the general play 

 of outline is preserved by the connection 

 of the parts, and yet where on a near ap- 

 proach, and in different directions, num- 

 berless breaks, inlets, and picturesque cir- 

 cumstances of every kind are perceived. 



Let us suppose then that all the trees, 

 bushes, and vegetation of every kind, were 

 to be taken away from such a bank ; what 

 would remain? A number of rough un- 

 sightly heaps of earth, tumbled into irre- 

 gular shapes; with perhaps several stumps, 

 roots of trees, and large stones in different 

 parts of it. If these also were removed, 

 nothing would be left but broken unequal 

 banks of earth. The prophetic eye of real 

 taste might indeed, even in this rude 

 chaos, discern the foundation of numberless 



