or Obscurity, may be produced to the World in the Figure they deserve by this means.  I doubt not but this last Argument will have Force with you, and I cannot add another to it, but what your Severity will, I fear, very little regard; which is, that I am, SIR, Your greatest Admirer, Richard Steele.

* * * * *

No. 414.  Wednesday, June 25, 1712.  Addison.

—­Alterius sic
Altera poscit opem res et conjurat amice.

Hor.

If we consider the Works of Nature and Art, as they are qualified to entertain the Imagination, we shall find the last very defective, in Comparison of the former; for though they may sometimes appear as Beautiful or Strange, they can have nothing in them of that Vastness and Immensity, which afford so great an Entertainment to the Mind of the Beholder.  The one may be as Polite and Delicate as the other, but can never shew her self so August and Magnificent in the Design.  There is something more bold and masterly in the rough careless Strokes of Nature, than in the nice Touches and Embellishments of Art.  The Beauties of the most stately Garden or Palace lie in a narrow Compass, the Imagination immediately runs them over, and requires something else to gratifie her; but, in the wide Fields of Nature, the Sight wanders up and down without Confinement, and is fed with an infinite variety of Images, without any certain Stint or Number.  For this Reason we always find the Poet in Love with a Country-Life, where Nature appears in the greatest Perfection, and furnishes out all those Scenes that are most apt to delight the Imagination.

  ‘Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus et fugit Urbes.’

  Hor.

  ’Hic Secura quies, et nescia fallere vita,
  Dives opum variarum; hic latis otia fundis,
  Speluncae, vivique lacus, hic frigida Tempe,
  Mugitusque boum, mollesque sub arbore somni.’

  Virg.

But tho’ there are several of these wild Scenes, that are more delightful than any artificial Shows; yet we find the Works of Nature still more pleasant, the more they resemble those of Art:  For in this case our Pleasure rises from a double Principle; from the Agreeableness of the Objects to the Eye, and from their Similitude to other Objects:  We are pleased as well with comparing their Beauties, as with surveying them, and can represent them to our Minds, either as Copies or Originals.  Hence it is that we take Delight in a Prospect which is well laid out, and diversified with Fields and Meadows, Woods and Rivers; in those accidental Landskips of Trees, Clouds and Cities, that are sometimes found in the Veins of Marble; in the curious Fret-work of Rocks and Grottos; and, in a Word, in any thing that hath such a Variety or Regularity as may seem the Effect of Design, in what we call the Works of Chance.