24 OF TASTE. BOOK I. 



scattered irregularly, and in some places raised into small 

 heaps, and a spectator, who had not seen the whole operation, 

 will not be able fully nor quickly to conceive an idea of 

 each form; and will be totally at a loss to know what is con- 

 cealed in the heaps, whether forms of the same kind, or some 

 others of totally different qualities. 



Hardness, softness, roughness, and smoothness,— 

 are qualities of forms which perhaps might have been included 

 under Disposition. They address themselves both to the sense 

 of feeling and of sight. Separately, they are calculated to ex- 

 cite alternately pleasing and painful sensations ; but, com- 

 bined, their effect becomes exquisite. The eye acquires a 

 knowledge of some of these qualities by experience; thus 

 roughness is discerned by the abrupt union of light and shade; 

 smoothness by their gradual intermixture, or by their equality. 

 Brightness is the extreme of smoothness, and is a great beauty, 

 as in the eyes of animals, and in water. It is always accom- 

 panied by roughness, which as uniformly produces shade, as in 

 the eye-lashes and the shaggy banks of rivers, lakes, &c. If 

 brightness any where exists without roughness, it is in the leaves 

 of shining vegetables ; but even in these, nature produces the 

 effect of roughness by varying the surface, which, according to 

 a simple law in optics, occasions a total absorption of the rays, 

 and consequent darkness in one place ; while the entire reflec- 



