166 



All this to the advocates of extreme sim*. 

 plidty may seem refinement ; and yet it 

 must be considered, that in the higher 

 styles of 'ail the arts— in painting, in poetry, 

 in ali dramatic representations, the most 

 striking effects are produced by heighten- 

 ing, and so far by deviating from eominom 

 obvious nature ; and by adding what is -ar- 

 tificial, to what is strictly simple and natu- 

 ral. The good or bad effects of such 

 heightening^, deviations, and additions, de- 

 upon the taste, judgment, and genius 



ideas, he would have searched after bold picturesque effects; 

 but smoothness, verdure, and a hanging level, were sure to 

 be 'popular. I do not mean to discuss the merit of this 

 alteration, though somewhat inclined to doubt of it ; but 

 merely to question Mr. Brown's title to boldness of con- 

 ception. His successor, who proposed blowing up the 

 terrace at Powis Castle,* had certainly more merit in point 

 of -boldness : I think, however, that upon such occasions 

 Some qualifying epithet should be applied, such as iplendide 

 mendax<; and when iye consider the flat operation that was 

 to have Ensued after the burst of gunpowder, we might say 

 that the successor was rriore boldly tame, than his more 

 illustrious predecessor. 



* Letter to Mr. Repton, fpa%e %H 



