Let him go still further now, in imagination, and suppose the banks of this natural lake, without being otherwise altered, entirely denuded of grass, shrubs, trees, and verdure of every description, remaining characterized only by their original form and outline; this will give him a more complete view of the method in which his labors must commence; for uncouth and apparently mis-shapen as those banks are and must be, when raw and unclothed, to exhibit all their variety and play of light and shadow when verdant and complete, so also must the original form of the banks and margin of the piece of artificial water, in order finally to assume the beautiful or picturesque, be made to assume outlines equally rough and harsh in their raw and incomplete state.
