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are broad and continued. Every person 

 of the least observation, must have re- 

 marked how broad the lights and shadows 

 are on a fine evening in nature, or (what 

 is almost the same thing) in a picture of 

 Claude. He must equally have remarked 

 the extreme difference between such lights 

 and shadows, and those which sometimes 

 disgrace the works of painters, in other re- 

 spects of great excellence; and which prevail 

 in nature, when the sun-beams, refracted and 

 dispersed in every direction by a number 

 of white flickering clouds, create a per- 

 petually shifting glare, and keep the eye in 

 a state of constant irritation. All such 

 accidental effects arising from clouds, 

 though they strongly shew the general 

 principle, and are highly proper to be 

 studied by all lovers of painting or of na- 

 ture, yet not being subject to our controul, 

 are of less use to improvers ; a great deal 

 however is subject to our controul, and I 

 believe we may lay it down as a very ge- 

 neral maxim, that in proportion as the ob- 

 jects are scattered, unconnected, and in 



