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softness and smoothness, would then be 

 united. 



I may here observe, that as softness is 

 become a visible quality as well as smooth- 

 ness, so also> from the same kind of sym- 

 pathy, it is a principle of beauty in many 

 visible objects: but as the hardest bodies 

 are those which receive the highest polish, 

 and consequently the highest degree of 

 smoothness, there must be a number of ob- 

 jects in which smoothness and softness are 

 for that reason incompatible. The one 

 however is not unfrequently mistaken for 

 the other, and I have more than once 

 heard pictures, which were so smoothly 

 finished that they looked like ivory, com- 

 mended for their softness. 



The skin of a delicate woman, is an ex- 

 ample of softness and smoothness united ; 

 but if by art a higher polish be given to the 

 skin, the softness, and in that case I may 

 add the beauty, is destroyed. Fur, moss, 

 hair, wool, &c. are comparatively rough; 

 but they are soft, and yield to pressure, 

 and therefore take off from the appear- 



