85 



instead of lying under banks well varied 

 and enriched, it is frequently carried up to 

 the uniform surface of the grass above 

 them. Wherever water is every where on 

 a level with the general surface of mere 

 grass, there can of course be no diversity 

 in its immediate banks, as is the case with 

 rivers that slowly flow through a continued 

 plain; the only kind that professed im- 

 provers seem to have looked at. Where 

 rivers descend from a hilly country into 

 a flat, the floods, even there, deepen their 

 channels, and thereby give rise to many 

 varieties, which never can exist where the 

 stream is nearly on a level with the grass.* 

 This suggests to me a remark not unworthy 



* The varieties which the impetuous motion of water oc- 

 casions, and the means by which it produces them, are very 

 distinctly marked in a Poem of Macchiavelli, called Capi- 

 tolo della Fortuna. 



Come un torrente rapido, ch'al tutto 

 Superbo e fatto, ogni cosa fracassa 

 Dovunque aggiugne il suo corso per tutto ; 

 E questa parte accresce, e quella abbassa, 

 Varia le ripe, varia il letto, il fondo, 

 E fa tremar la terra d'onde passa. 



