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'in the sorrows of a Belvidere or a Beverley, though we know that no such
persons ever existed: it
is enough, if so much as we are shown of the character appears to be a just
resemblance of nature.
In the same manner, the magnificent water at Blenheim strikes with wonder
and delight, while we
neither see its beginning or end; and we do not view it with less pleasure
after we are told, that it
was not originally a natural lake, but that Mr. Brown, stopping the current
of a small river, collected
this vast body of water into the beautiful shape we now admire.'
Mr. Burke very justly observes, " that a true artist should put a generous
deceit on the spectators,
and effect the noblest designs by easy methods. Designs that are vast only
by their dimensions, are
always the sign of a common and low imagination. No work of art can be great,
but as it deceives;
to be otherwise is the prerogative of nature only."  Essay on the Sublime,
Part II. Sect. 1 0.