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reputation ; an affectation of simplicity, of 

 mere nature ; a desire of banishing all em- 

 bellishments of art, where art ought to be 

 employed, and even in some degree dis- 

 played. On this account, I have always 

 been sorry that Mr. Mason should have be- 

 gun his Poem on English Gardening, by an 

 address to Simplicity : not that simplicity is 

 not fully deserving of all our homage, but 

 that it is more than useless to enforce the 

 practice of any one virtue, even where its 

 excess is least dangerous, when the general 

 tendency is towards that excess. Mr. Mason 

 has also given her a jurisdiction, to which, 

 in my opinion, she is by no means entitled ; 

 he has made her " arbitress of all that's 

 " good and fair." Simplicity as a character, 

 may, I think, be opposed, to what is en- 

 riched and ornamented ; there is, indeed, 

 no one word appropriated to that opposite 

 character ; but in painting (and perhaps in 

 other arts) it might, without impropriety, be 

 termed Richness, A striking example of 

 their opposition may be found in the 

 works of Rubens, contrasted with those of 



