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and popular quality, that it is often ap- 

 plied as the highest commendation to 

 whatever gives us pleasure, or raises our 

 admiration, be the cause what it will. Mr. 

 Burke has given several instances of these 

 ill-judged applications, and of the confu- 

 sion of ideas which result from them ; but 

 there is nothing more ill-judged, or more 

 likely to create confusion, if we at all agree 

 with Mr. Burke in his idea of beauty, than 

 the mode which prevails of joining together 

 two words of a different, and in some re- 

 spects of an opposite meaning, and calling 

 the character by the title of Picturesque 

 Beauty. 



I must observe, however, that I by no 

 means object to the expression itself; I 

 only object to it as a general term for the 

 character, and as comprehending every 

 kind of scenery, and every set of objects 

 which look well in a picture. That is the 

 sense, as far as I have observed, in which 

 it is very commonly used; consequently, 

 an old hovel, an old cart horse, or an old 



