tion is not to make a journey, but to feast 'my eye with the beauties of art and nature. This rule excludes not long ftraight 6penings terminating upon diftant objects. Thefe, befide variety, never fail to raise an emotion of grandeur, by extending in appearance the fize of the field. An opening without a terminating object, foon clofes upon the eye: but an object, at whatever distance, continues the opening; and deludes the fpectator into a conviction, that the trees which confine the view are continued till they join the object. Straight walks allo in receffes do extremely well: they vary the fcenery, and are favourable to medita tion. ** An avenue ought not to be directed in a ftraight line upon a dwelling-houfe:/better far an oblique approach in a waving line, with fingle trees and other scattered objects interpofed. In a direct approach, the first appearance continues the fame to the end : we fee a house at a diftance, and we fee it all along in the fame fpot without any variety. In an oblique approach, the intervening objects put the house seemingly in motion: it moves with the passenger, and appears to direct its course so as hofpitably to intercept him. An oblique approach contributes alfo to variety: the house being feen fucceffively in different directions, takes on at every ftep a new figure. A garden on a flat ought to be highly and variously ornamented, in order to occupy the mind and prevent its regretting the infipidity of an uniform plain. Artificial mounts in this view are common: but no ¡perfon has thought of an artificial walk elevated high above the plain. Such a walk is airy, and tends to elevate the mind: it extends and varies the profpect: and it makes the plain, feen from a height, appear more agreeable. Whether fhould a ruin be in the Gothic or Grecian form? In the former, I say; because it exhibits the triumph of time over ftrength, a melancholy but not unpleasant thought. A Grecian ruin fuggefts rather the triumph of barbarity over taste, a gloomy and discouraging thought. Fountains are feldom in a good taste. Statues of animals vomiting water, which prevail 1 VOL. III. Rr prevail every where, ftand condemned. { A ftatue of a whale fpouting water upward from its head, would in one fenfe be natu ral, as whales of a certain fpecies have that power. The defign however would fcarce be relished, becaufe its fingularity would give it the appearance of being unnatural. There is another reafon against it, that the figure of a whale is in itself not a greeable. In the many fountains in and about Rome, ftatues of fishes are frequently employ'd to fupport a large bafin of water, This unnatural conceit cannot be otherwife explained, than by the connection betwixt water and the fish that fwim in it; which by the way is a proof of the influence that even the flighter connections have on the mind. The only good defign for a fountain I have met with, is what follows, In an artificial rock, rugged and abrupt, there is a cavity out of fight at the top: the water, convey'd to it by a pipe, pours or trickles down the broken parts of the rock, and is collected into a bafin at the foot it is fo contrived, as to make the water fall in fheets or in rills at pleafure.olen ve M Hitherto 4 : Hitherto a garden has been treated as a work intended folely for pleasure, or, in o ther words, for giving impreffions of intrin fic beauty. What comes next in order is the beauty of a garden deftined for use, termed relative beauty *; and this branch. fhall be dispatched in a few words. In gar dening, luckily, relative beauty need never ftand in oppofition to intrinfic beauty. All the ground that can be requifite for ufe, makes but a small proportion of an ornas mented field; and may be put in any corner without obstructing the difpofition of the capital parts. At the fame time, a kitchengarden or an orchard is fufceptible of intrinfic beauty; and may be fo artfully difpofed among the other parts, as by variety and contrast to contribute to the beauty of the whole. In this refpect, architecture is far more intricate, as will be feen immediately: for there, it being often requifite to blend intrinfic and relative beauty in the fame building, it becomes a difficult task to attain both in any perfection. * See these terms defined, chap. 3. Rr 2 D As gardening is brought to greater perfection in China than in any other known country, an account of the means practifed by Chinese artists to infpire all the various! emotions of gardening, will be a fine illu ftration of the foregoing doctrine. In gene ral, it is an indifpenfable law with them, never to deviate from nature: but in order to produce that degree of variety which is pleafing, every method is ufed that is confiftent with nature. Natureh is strictly imitated in the banks of their artificial lakes and rivers; which fometimes are bare and gravelly, fometimes covered with wood quite to the brink of the water. vdTo flab fpots adorned with flowers and fhrubs, are opposed others fteep and rockych We fee meadows covered with cattle; rice-grounds that run into the lakes; rivulets. These generally conduct to some interesting object, a magnificent building, terraces cut in a mountain, a cascade, a grotto, an artificial rock, and other fuch inventions. Their ar tificial rivers are generally ferpentine; fometimes narrow, noify, and rapid; fometimes enter navigable creeks, groves into which deep, |