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PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. BOOK I. 



CHAPTER I. 



OP THE PRINCIPLES OP PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. 



In picturesque improvement, the first objects of attention are 

 the leading principles; which, as the name imports, must 

 obviously be those of composition in landscape painting ; the 

 universal guide in which is, unity of design and character with 

 regard to the whole, and grouping, or connexion, in respect to the 

 parts. Unity of expression or character is the essential and 

 fundamental principle of all the polite arts, and pervades every 

 striking or exquisite composition, whether in landscape, poetry, 

 or music. It derives its importance from the nature of the hu- 

 man mind, which never can view or conceive clearly above one 

 object or impression at a time; and hence whatever does not 

 assist the prevailing idea must serve to weaken it, either by 

 rendering it uninteresting, or by disturbing the attention altoge- 

 ther. It is produced by the particular conformation, relation, 

 and allusion of all the parts to the whole; which whole, in the 

 characters of scenery or art, as in those of human life, may ei- 

 ther be pleasing or disagreeable, amiable or disgusting. Still 

 in each the proper component parts are necessary to complete 

 the expression: the faults of some men are as necessary to render 



