5 



been consecrated by long uninterrupted- 

 admiration, and which therefore have a 

 similar claim to influence our judgment, 

 and to form our taste in all that is within 

 their province. These are the reasons for 

 studying copies of nature, though the 

 original is before us, that we may not 

 lose the benefit of what is of such great 

 moment in all arts and sciences, the accu- 

 mulated experience of past ages ; and with 

 respect to the art of improving, we may 

 look upon pictures as a set of experiments 

 of the different ways in which trees, build- 

 ings, water, &c. may be disposed, grouped, 

 and accompanied, in the most beautiful and 

 striking manner, and in every style, from 

 the most simple and rural, to the grandest 

 and most ornamental. Many of those ob- 

 jects, that are scarcely marked as they lie 

 scattered over the face of nature, when 

 brought together in the compass of a small 

 space of canvas are forcibly impressed 

 upon the eye, which by that means 

 learns how to separate, to select, and 

 combine. 



B o 



