289 



Worthy of remark, that in the Liber Veri- 

 tatis of Claude, consisting of nearly two 

 hundred drawings, there are not, I believe* 

 more than three single trees. This is one 

 strong proo£ which the works of other 

 painters would fully confirm, that those 

 who most studied the effect of visible ob* 

 jects, attended infinitely less to their dis- 

 tinct individual forms, than to their group- 

 ing and connection* 



The great sources of all that painters admire 

 in natural scenery, are accident and neg- 

 lect*; for in forests and old parks, the rough 

 bushes nurse up young trees, and grow up 

 with them ; and thence arises that infinite 



* I remember hearing what I thought a just criticism 

 •n a part of Mr. Crabbe's poem of the Library : he has 

 there personified Neglect, and given her the active employ- 

 ment of spreading dust oti books of ancient chivalry. But 

 in producing picturesque effects, I begin to think her vii 

 inertia is in many cases a very powerful agent. 



Should this criticism induce any person who had not 

 read the Library, to look at the part 1 have mentioned, 

 he will soon forget his motive for looking at it, in his ad- 

 miration of one of the most animated, and highly poetica! 

 descriptions I ever read. 



vop. I, V 



