DIVISION THE SECOND.

PRINCIPLES OF THE RURAL ART.

SECTION THE FIRST.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

ARTS, merely imitative, have but one prin

ciple to work by, the nature, or actual ftate, of the thing to be imitated. In works of defign and invention, another principle takes the lead, which is tafte. And in every work, in which mental gratification is not the only object, a third principle arifes, utility, or the concurrent purpose for which the production is intended.

THE RURAL ART is fubject to thefe three principles: to nature, as being an imitative art; to utility, as being productive of objects, which are ufeful, as well as ornamental; and to taste, in the choice of fit objects to be imitated, and of fit purpofes

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poses to be purfued; as alfo in the compofition of the feveral objects and ends propofed, fo as to produce the degree of gratification and use, best suited to the place, and to the purpose for which it is about to be ornamented: thus, a Hunting Box and a Summer Villa,-an Ornamented Cottage and a Manfion, require a different ftyle of ornament, a different choice of objects, a different taste. Nor can tafte be confined to nature and utility,-the place and the purpose, alone; the object of the Polite Arts is the gratification of the human mind, and the state of refinement, of the mind itself, must be confidered. Men's notions vary, not only in different ages, but individually in the fame age: what would have gratified mankind, a century ago, in this country, will not please them now; while the Country Squire and the Fine Gentleman of the prefent day require a different kind of gratification: neverthelefs, under thefe various circumftances, every thing may be natural, and every thing adapted to the place; the degree of refinement conftituting the principal difference.

We do not mean to enter into any argument, about whether a ftate of rufticity, or a state of refinement, whether the foreft, or the city, be the ftate for which the Author of Nature intended the human species: mankind are now found in every ftate, and in every ftage of favagenefs, rufticity,

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civilization, and refinement; and the particular style of ornament we wish to recommend is, that which is beft adapted to the ftate of refinement that now prevails in this country; leaving individuals to vary it, as their own peculiar tastes may direct.

BEFORE we proceed farther, it may be neceffary to explain what it is we mean, by nature, and natural. If, in the idea of natural ftate, we include ground, water, and wood, no fpot in this ifland can be faid to be in aftate of nature. The ground, or the furface of the earth, as left by Nature (or the convulfions of Nature), remains, it is true, with but few alterations; yet, even here, (efpecially among rocks and steep acclivities, the nobleft features in the face of Nature), we frequently find the hand of Art has been at work. Again, though rivers may ftill run in the channels, or nearly in the channels, into which Nature directed them; yet waters, taken generally, have been greatly controuled by human art. And, with refpect to wood, we may venture to fay, that there is not a tree, perhaps not a bush, now ftanding upon the face of the country, which owes its identical ftate of exiflence to Nature alone. Wherever cultivation has fet its foot,-wherever the plow and fpade have laid fallow the foil,-Nature is become extinct; and it is in neglected or lefs cultivated places, in moraffes and mountains, in forefts

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forests and parochial waftes, we are to seek for anything near a state of Nature ;-we mean in this country. And who would look for the ftandard of tafte, who expect to find the lovely mixture of wood and lawn, fo delightful to the human eye, in the endless woods of America? We may therefore conclude, that the objects of our imitation are not to be fought for in uncultivated Nature. The inhofpitable heaths of Weftmoreland may astonish for the moment, may be the pleafing amufement of a fummer's day, and agreeable objects in their places; but are they cbjects of imitation under the window of a drawing room? Rather let us turn our eyes to well foiled, well wooded, well cultivated spots, where Nature and Art are happily blended; leaving those who are admirers of Art, merely imitative, to contemplate Nature on canvas; and thofe who wifh for Nature, in a state of total neglect, to take up their refidence in the woods of America.

FAR be it from us to rebel against the laws of Nature, or to question, in any wife, the perfection of the Deity. A ftate of nature, in the eye of Omniscience, is undoubtedly a state of perfection, But, in the littlenefs of human conception, fomething is wanted, to bring down natural objects to the level of human comprehenfion. What object in nature is in a state of human perfection? Even

in the finest woman, a female critic will difcover faults: and, in the handsomest horse, a buyer will point out what, in the human eye, appear as imperfections. Did ever a landfcape painter find a scene, purely natural, which might not have been improved by the hand of Art, or which he did not actually improve by a ftroke of his pencil? A ftriking feature may fometimes be caught, where little addition is wanted; but in a rich picturable view, which will bear to be placed repeatedly under the eye, a portion of lawn is requifite *, and, in the wilds of nature, we know of no fuch thing. THERE

* Mr. GRAY, whofe letters to Dr. WARTON, defcribing the natural scenery of the North of England, have been held out as models of their kind, corroborates our idea.

Juft beyond this, opens one of the fweeteft landscapes that art ever attempted to imitate. The bofom of the mountain fpreading here into a broad bafon, difcovers in the midft • Grafmere Water: its margin is hollowed into fmall bays,

with bold eminences, fome of rock, fome of foft turf, that

half conceal and vary the figure of the little lake they command: from the fhore a low promontory pufhes itself far into the water, and on it stands a white village, with the parishchurch rifing in the midst of it: hanging inclosures, corn⚫ fields, and meadows green as emerald, with their trees, and hedges, and cattle, fill up the whole space from the edge of the water and just opposite to you is a large farm-houfe, at the bottom of a steep finooth lawn, embofomed in old woods, ¶ which climb half way up the mountain fide, and discover ⚫ above