Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/326

 312 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

make it fee many things, or more things than (lie expected.

From this appears the reafon why we are pleafed when we fee a garden that is very regular; and why we are alio plealed when we fee a fpot that is rough and wil^'. The fame caufe produces thefe ef- fcds.

As we love to fee a great num- ber of objects, we would enlarge our view, we would be in many places, we would run over more fpace. In fine, our foul hates to be bound, and fhe would as it were enlarge the fphere of her pre- fence. Thus it is a great pleafure for her, to extend her view to a diftance. But how fhould fhe do it ? In towns our view is bounded by houfes ; it is fo in the country, by a thoufand obftacles : fcarcely can we fee three or four trees. Art comes to our aid, and difcovers nature, who hides her- felf from us. We love art, and we Jove it better than nature, that is to fay, better than nature when it is hid from our eyes. But when we find fine fituations, when our fight at liberty can fee at a diltance xiverf, hilh, meadows, and their difpofitions, which are, as one may fay, eredled for the purpofe, fhe is enchanted in quite a difFerent manner, than when Ihe fees the gardens of Le Notre ; becaufe na- ture copies herfelf: whereas art has always a faminefs. It is for this reafon that in painting we are better pleafeiJ with a landfcape, than with the i Ian of the fineil gar- den in the world.

What pcmmcnly makes a great thought, is when a thing is faid, that makes us fee agr'^at number of other things ; and difcovers to us all at once, what we could nqt 7

have expected to have attained but by long lludy.

Florus in a few v.'ords reprefents to us ail the faults of Hannibal, " While," fays he, " he might •' have made advantage of the vic- maluit.
 * tory, he chofe rather to enjoy
 * it." Cum viSioria pojjetati, frui

He gives us an idea of the whole war of Macedon, in faying, " To enter it, was to conquer it.'* Intro'ijfe njiSioria fuit.

He gives us an entire view of the life of Scipio, when, fpeaking of his youth, he fays, *' This fhall " the deftrudion of Africa. "///Vm^ Scipio, qui in exitiiim Afriae crefcit. You imagine before your eyes a child, who is rifing up and grow- ing like a giant. Finally he Ihews us the great charadler of Hannibai, the condition of the univerfe, and all the grandeur of the Roman people, when he fays, " Hannibal, •* driven from his country, fought '* through the univerfe an enemy " to the Roman people." ^^ profugus ex Africa hojlem populo Rof piano toto orbs qutsrebat.
 * be Stipio, who is growing up for

Of the pleafure that order gi'ves.

It is not fufHcient to (hew the foul many things; they mull be fhewn in order; for then we recollect what we have feen : and we begin to imagir.e what we iTiall fee. Our foul congratulates herfelf on her extent, and on her penetration. But in a work where there is no order, the foul, at every turn, perceives that the order fhe would eltabiilh is dillurbed. The ar- rangement that the author has made, and that which we make for ourfelves, are confounded with

one