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AKCniTKCTUKAL ORNAMENTS. 



The tower is intended to contain the stairs, and to lift tlie occupant above the trees 

 arouiKl, the top commanding an interesting view from tlic ocean to the lliglihmtls of 

 the Hudson, embracing the cities of New York, Brooklyn, and Newark, with three 

 broad and navigable rivers in the middle ground, and miles of wood in the immediate 

 vicinity. 



The plan is compact, and furni.>hes the usual accommodation of hall or entry, parlor, 

 dining-room, and kitchen. 



The second story contains five rooms, besides closets. Over this may be a library, 

 or painting-room, picture-gallery, or museum. 



ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENTS. 



"Whoever travels over our country will notice some strange freaks in the way of 

 ornaments to buildings. People seem tired of the old tasteless style, and for want 

 of knowledge and good taste, and not from want of disposition to do the right thing, 

 pile on the ornaments, without the least taste or propriety. 



The following article from RejAoii's Landscape Gardening, contains some valuable 

 hints. It makes a fine addition to our chapter last month, from the same source ; on 

 " Architecture — Styles and Chanf/cs^\- 



"Of Ornaments, &c. — The English language does not admit of a distinction 

 between those ornaments which comprehend utility, and those which are merely orna- 

 mental, or, rather, enrichments ; thus, columns may be called architectural ornaments, 

 but the sculptured foliage of the capitals are decorations and enrichments. In the 

 progress of sculpture, we may trace it as an imitative art; from its origin, in the rude 

 misshapen blocks of granite in Egypt, to its perfection, in the works of Greece, which 

 are selected or combined forms of beauty, ideal forms, surpassing those of nature. 

 We may, afterward, trace its decline, in the labored exactness of imitation, as in 

 Chinese figures, where individual nature is so closely copied, that even color and 

 motion are added to complete the resemblance. 



"Much has been said, of late, concerning the study of nature in all works of art; 

 but, if the most exact imitations of nature were the criterion of perfection, the man 

 who paints a panorama, or even a scene at the theatres, would rank liigher than 

 Claude or Pocssin. In that early stage of painting in England, when the exhibi- 

 tions were first opened, they were crowded with portraits in colored wax, artificial 

 flowers and fruits, and boards painted to deceive and surprise by the exactness of their 

 resemblance ; but they never excited admiration like the marble of Wilton, the wood 

 carved by Gibdon, or the animated canvas of Reynolds. Mr. Burke observes, that 

 ' it is the duty of a true artist to put a generous deception on the spectators ;' but in 

 close an imitation of nature, he commits an absolute fraud, and becomes ridicu 

 , by the attempt to perform impossibilities. If it is the mark of a low imagina 



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