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strongly marked in sculpture, especially in 

 vases of metal ; where the vine leaf, if im pru- 

 dently handled, would at least prove that 

 sharpness is very contrary to the beautiful 

 in feeling ; and the analogy between the 

 two senses is surely very just. It may also 

 be remarked, that in all such works sharp- 

 ness of execution is a term of high praise. 



I must here observe (and I must beg to 

 call the reader's attention to what in my 

 idea throws a strong light on the whole of 

 the subject) that almost all ornaments are 

 rough, and most of them sharp, which is 

 a mode of roughness ; and, considered 

 analogically, the most contrary to beauty 

 of any mode. But as the ornaments are 

 rough, so the ground is generally smooth; 

 which shews, that though smoothness be 

 the most essential quality of beauty, with- 

 out which it can scarcely exist — yet that 

 roughness, in its different modes and de- 

 grees, is the ornament, the fringe of beauty, 

 that which gives it life and spirit, and pre- 

 serves it from baldness and insipidity. 

 A moment's consideration indeed will 



