330 



and education : but the force of fashion 

 and example are well known, and few have 

 such energy of mind, and confidence in 

 their own principles, to think and act for 

 themselves, in opposition to general opinion 

 and practice. Some French writer, whose 

 name I do not recollect, ventures to express 

 a doubt, whether a tree waving in the wind 

 with all its branches free and untouched, 

 may not possibly be an object more worthy 

 of admiration, than one cut into form in 

 the gardens of Versailles. This bold scep- 

 tic in theory, had most probably his trees 

 shorn like those of his sovereign. 



It is equally probable that many an 

 English gentleman may have felt deep re- 

 gret, when Mr. Brown had metamorphosed 

 some charming trout stream into a piece 

 of water; and that many a time afterwards, 

 when disgusted with its glare and formality 

 he has been heavily plodding along its 

 naked banks, he may have thought how 

 beautifully fringed those of his little brook 

 once had been ; how it sometimes ran ra- 

 pidly over the stones and shallows - f and 



