328 



when they are the offspring of a little nar* 

 row mind elated with temporary favour, 

 provoke ridicule, and deserve to meet with 

 it, 



Mr. Mason's poem on modern garden-- 

 ing, is as real an attack on Mr. Brown's 

 system, as what I have written. He has 

 as strongly guarded the reader against the 

 insipid formality of clumps, &c. and has 

 equally recommended the study of paint-? 

 ing as the best guide to improvers ; but the 

 „ praise which he has bestowed on Mr. Brown 

 liimself, however generally conveyed, has 

 spoiled the effect of so powerful an antir 

 dote. Most people, from a very natural 

 indolence, are more inclined to copy an 

 established and approved practice, than 

 to correct its defects, or to form a new 

 mode of practice from theory ; Mr. Ma- 

 son's eulogium has therefore sanctioned 

 Mr. Brown's system more effectually, than 

 his precepts have guarded against it. That 

 eulogium, however, (if I may be allowed 

 to make a suggestion, which I think is au- 

 thorized by the tenor of the poem) has 



