260 



beauty, they not only far excel every thing 

 of inanimate nature, but their beauty is 

 complete and perfect in itself ; while that 

 of almost every other object requires their 

 assistance. Without them, the most varied 

 inequality of ground is uninteresting: rocks, 

 though their variety is of a more striking 

 kind, and often united with grandeur, still 

 want their accompaniment: and although in 

 the higher parts of mountains trees are 

 neither expected nor required, yet if there 

 be none in any part of the view, a scene of 

 mere barrenness and desolation, however 

 grand, soon fatigues the eye. Water in all 

 its characters of brooks, rivers, lakes, 

 and water-falls, appears cold and naked 

 without them : the sea alone forms an 

 exception, its sublimity absorbing all idea 

 of lesser ornaments ; for no one can view 

 the foam, the gulphs, the impetuous mo- 

 tion of that world of waters, without a deep 

 impression of its destructive and irresistible 

 power. But sublimity is not its only cha- 

 racter ; for after that first cwful sensation 

 is weakened by use, the mrinite variety in 



