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male, and inanimate objects. It cannot be 

 said that there is much general analogy 

 between a tree and a human figure ; but 

 there is a great deal in the particular qua- 

 lities which make them either beautiful, or 

 picturesque. Almost all the qualities of 

 beauty, as it might naturally be expected, 

 belong to youth; and, among them all, 

 none is more consonant to our ideas of 

 beauty, or gives so general an impression of 

 it as freshness: without it, the most perfect 

 form wants its most precious finish; where- 

 ever it begins to depart, wherever marks 

 of age, or of unhealthiness appear, though 

 other effects, other sympathies, other cha- 

 racters may arise, there must be a diminu-* 

 tion of beauty. Freshness, which equally 

 belongs to vegetable and animal beauty, 

 is one of the most striking and attractive 

 qualities in the general appearance of a 

 beautiful object; whether of a tree in its 

 most flourishing state, or of a human figure 

 in its highest perfection. In either, the 

 smallest diminution of that quality from 

 age or disease, is a manifest diminution of 



