culties into which so ingenious a writer 

 has been led, frofn losing sight of that 

 genuine and universal distinction between 

 the beautiful and the picturesque which 

 he hitnself had begun by establishing, and 

 which separates their characters equally in 

 nature and in art; and from confining 

 himself to that unsatisfactory notion of a 

 mere general reference to the art of paint- 

 ing oh\y. 



He has given it as his opinion, that 

 " roughness forms the most essential point 

 of difference between the beautiful and 

 the picturesque, and seems to be that 

 particular quality which makes objects 

 chiefly please in painting." He therefore 

 has thought it necessary in some instances, 

 to exclude smooth objects from painting, 

 and to shew in others, that what is smooth 

 In reality, is rough in appearance; so that 

 when we faney ourselves admiring the 

 smoothness which we think we perceive, 

 as in a calm lake, we are in fact admiring 

 the toughness which we have not ob- 



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