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banks ought every where to be of an equal 

 height above the water, and the ground 

 equally sloped down to it? If it be allowed, 

 as I presume it must, that no such idea is 

 to be found amongst the poets, I am sure 

 it can as little be justified by natural 

 scenery : for let us imagine the river to be 

 brimful, like a canal, for a certain distance 

 from any given point, and then, as it per- 

 petually happens, the bank to rise suddenly 

 to a considerable height; the zvatcr must 

 remain on the same level, but the brim 

 would be changed, and instead of being 

 brimful, according to an idea taken from 

 Mr. Brown, not from Milton, the river 

 though full, would in that place be deep 

 within its banks. But still, it has been 

 argued, when the water rises to the upper 

 edge of the banks, the signs of their hav- 

 ing been worn cannot appear: certainly 

 not in Mr. Brown's canals, where monotony 

 is so carefully guarded, that the full stream 

 of a real river would, for a long time, hardly 

 produce any variety : but do rivers, in their 

 natural state never swell with rain or sriow, 



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