It would have been far more grateful to my feelings and inclination, to have pointed out those passages in which I concur with the author of the Landscape; but I am compelled, by the duties of my profession, to notice those parts only, which tend to vitiate the taste of the nation, by introducing false principles; by recommending negligence for ease, and slovenly weeds for native beauty. Extremes are equally to be avoided; and I trust that the taste of this country will neither insipidly slide into the trammels of that smooth-shaven "genius of the bare and bald," which he so justly ridicules, nor enlist under the banners of that shaggy and harsh-featured spirit, which knows no delight but in the scenes of Salvator Rosa;-scenes of horror, well calculated for the residence of banditti, "Breathing blood, calamity, and strife."
