The eye, or rather the mind, is never long delighted with that which it surveys without effort, at a single glance, and therefore sees without exciting curiosity or interest. It is not the vast extent of lawn, the great expanse of water, or the long range of wood, that yields satisfaction; for these, if shapeless, or, which is the same thing, if their exact shape, however large, be too apparent, only attract our notice by the space they occupy, to fill that space with objects of beauty, to delight the eye after it has been struck, to fix the attention where it has been caught, to prolong astonishment into admiration, are purposes not unworthy of the greatest designs. This can only be effected by intricacy, the due medium between uniformity on the one hand, and confusion on the other; which is produced by throwing obstacles in the way to amuse the eye, and to retard that celerity of vision, so natural, where no impediments occur to break the uniformity of objects. Yet while the hasty progress of the eye is checked, it ought not to be arrested too abruptly. The mind requires a continuity, though not a sameness; and, while it is pleased with succession and variety, it is offended by sudden contrast, which destroys the unity of composition.
