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keeps the fibres to their full tone; and thus 

 picturesqueness when mixed with either of 

 the other characters, corrects the languor 

 of beauty, or the tension of sublimity. 

 But as the nature of every corrective, must 

 be to take off from the peculiar effect of 

 what it is to correct, so does the picturesque 

 when united to either of the others. It is 

 the coquetry of nature; it makes beauty 

 more amusing, more varied, more playful, 

 but also, 



" Less winning soft, less amiably mild." 



Again, by its variety, its intricacy, its par- 

 tial concealments, it excites that active 

 curiosity which gives play to the mind, 

 loosening those iron bonds, with which as- 

 tonishment chains up its faculties*. 



Where characters, however distinct in 

 their nature, are perpetually mixed together 

 in such various degrees and manners, it is 

 not always easy to draw the exact line of 



* This seems to be perfectly applicable to tragi- 

 comedy, and v is at once its apology and condemnation. 

 Whatever relieves the mind from a strong impression, of 

 course weakens that impression. 



