"Nothing is so captivating, or seems so much to accord with our ideas of beauty, as the smiles of a beautiful countenance; yet they have sometimes a striking mixture of the other character. Of this kind are those smiles which break out suddenly from a serious, sometimes from almost a severe countenance, and which, when that gleam is over, leave no trace of it behind-- _Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth, And e'er a man has time to say, behold! The jaws of darkness do devour it up._ There is another smile, which seems in the same degree to accord with the ideas of beauty only: it is that smile which proceeds from a mind full of sweetness and sensibility, and which, when it is over, still leaves on the countenance its mild and amiable impression; as after the sun is set, the mild glow of his rays is still diffused over every object. This smile, with the glow that accompanies it, is beautifully painted by Milton, as most becoming an inhabitant of heaven: To whom the angel, with a smile that glow'd Celestial rosy red, love's proper hue, Thus answered." The great object in the above Essays, is to improve the laying out of grounds by studying the productions "of those great artists _who have most diligently studied the beauties of nature_. On this subject he has in these volumes poured forth the effusions of his richly gifted mind, in his contemplation of the works of those really great painters, whose landscape scenery, from the most rural to the grandest, "have been consecrated by long uninterrupted admiration." Instead of the narrow, mechanical practice of a few English gardeners, or layers-out of grounds, he wishes "the noble and varied works of the eminent painters of every age, and of every country, and those of _their_ supreme mistress NATURE, should be the great models of imitation."[105] He has supported many of his opinions or observations, or embellished or enlivened them, by acute allusions, not only to Milton but to Shakspeare, whom he calls "that most original creator, and most accurate observer."[106]