REMARKS UPON TASTE. 



259 



again. There seems to be a gi-owing love for 

 horticulture among our people, and I trust 

 that it may continue to increase. I want to 

 see every body cultivating trees and flowers 

 for the pure love of them. 



Rob't Harwell. 



Cotlae;e Hill, Oct. ■25th, 1950. 



Remarks. — The foregoing interesting re- 

 marks on horticulture about Mobile, by our 



correspondent Mr. Harwell, we borrow from 

 the Alabama Planter. 



We do not quite understand how peach 

 trees, which bloom earhj, are more certain in 

 setting fruit than those which bloom late. It 

 is exactly the reverse here at the north. Will 

 Mr. Harwell explain the fact, which has 

 been mentioned once or twice before in 

 southern journals ? Ed. 



REMARKS UPON TASTE. 



BY J. C. LOUDON. 



The following remarks, originally written 

 by the late J. C. Loudon, Esq., for the Ar- 

 chitectural Magazine, are so interesting that 

 we re-publish them for the benefit of many, 

 whose ideas upon the subject of Taste, applied 

 to the Fine Arts, are somewhat vague and 

 indefinite. Ed. 



We have stated that, architecture being 

 chiefly an art of reason, all persons of com- 

 mon sense may acquire a just and a correct 

 taste in it ; but as architecture is also, to a 

 certain extent, an art of feeling and imagina- 

 tion, a perfect taste in it must not only be 

 just and correct, but delicate, intense and re- 

 fined. Delicacy and intensity depend princi- 

 pally upon organisation ; and refinement, con- 

 jointly on organisation and intellectual culti- 

 vation. We shall first offer a few remarks on 

 each of these qualities as far as they relate to 

 taste ; and next point out some of the causes 

 which operate on individuals so as to prevent 

 the taste of any one from attaining that per- 

 fection which ought to be the beau idlal of 

 all our endeavors. 



A delicate taste, it will be evident to every 

 one, must depend on the delicacy of the or- 

 ganisation of the individual ; it cannot, there- 

 fore, be communicated by instruction, except 

 in a very limited degree. It is very difficult 



for a person, who is without delicacy of taste 

 in any art, to conceive what it is, and in what 

 manner it operates on any individual. Some 

 idea, however, may be formed by every one 

 for himself, by reflecting on the difl'erence be- 

 tween common feeling, in any matter where 

 the passions or affections are concerned, and 

 what is called delicate feeling. The difl'er- 

 ence between an ordinarj- taste for architec- 

 ture and a delicate taste, is not less great 

 than between common and delicate feelings in 

 ordinary life. A delicate taste in architec- 

 ture will be sensibly affected by objects and 

 details which would pass unnoticed by those 

 who had merely a general taste, or even a 

 taste just and accurate. To recur to the 

 example we formerly gave of a Corinthian 

 portico : a man of just taste would approve of 

 it as a whole, and, if his taste were also cor- 

 rect, he would examine and approve or dis- 

 approve of the details ; while a man who to a 

 just and con'ect taste adds a delicate one, 

 would be sensibly affected by the mass of 

 deep shade produced by the projection of the 

 portico from the body of the building ; the 

 soft gradations of shadow on the dark side 

 of each particular column ; the lights soften- 

 ing into these shades on their light sides ; the 

 contrasted forms of the mould inii-.s in the cor- 



