103 



every species of excellence. Mr. Burke 

 lias done a great deal towards settling the 

 vague and contradictory ideas which were 

 entertained on that subject, by investigat- 

 ing its principal causes and effects; but as 

 the best things are often perverted to the 

 worst purposes, so his admirable treatise 

 has, perhaps, been one cause of the insi- 

 pidity which has prevailed under the name 

 of improvement. Few places have any 

 claim to sublimity, and where nature has 

 not given them that character, art is inef- 

 fectual; beauty, therefore, is the great 

 object, and improvers have learned from 

 the highest authority, that two of its prin- 

 cipal causes are smoothness, and gradual 

 variation; these qualities are in themselves 

 very seducing, but they are still more so, 

 when applied to the surface of ground, 

 from its being in every man's power to 

 produce them ; it requires neither taste^ 

 nor invention, but merely the mechanical 

 hand and eye of many a common labour* 

 er; and he who can make a nice asparagus 

 bed, has one of the most essential qualifi- 



ii 4 



