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usually, in discourse and contemplation, 

 that carries the name which operates 

 strongest, and appears most in the present 

 state of the mind." Now if smoothness, as 

 Mr. Gilpin acknowledges, be at least a con- 

 siderable source of beauty ; and if rough- 

 ness, according to his own statement, be 

 that which forms the most essential point 

 of difference between the beautiful and the 

 picturesque, it surely is rather a contradic- 

 tion to his own principles to call a lake in 

 its smoothest state picturesque, on account 

 of such interruptions to the absolute 

 smoothness, or rather uniformity of its sur- 

 face, as not only accord with beauty, but 

 are often in themselves sources of beauty ; 

 such as shades of various kinds, undula- 

 tions, and reflections. 



Upon the same grounds that he asserts 

 the smooth lake to be picturesque, he also 

 gives that character to the high-fed horse 

 with his smooth and shining coat. If, how- 

 ever* "a play ofmuscles appearing through 

 the fineness of the skin, gently swelling and 



* fissav cm Picturesque Beauty, page 22. 



