EXPRESSION OF I'l'RI'OSE. 



dome, an arcade, or a balustrade, which I cull the external ornaments of Grecian 

 art-hitecture. I include under the word dccornttonR — statues, vases, basso-relievos, 

 sculpture, i^'c, which have no use, but as additional enrichments to the ornaments 

 of architecture ; on the contrary, where these (ferorafions are applied to plain build- 

 intrs without oriKniirnfs, thay are marks of had taste." 



Overloading a small garden with buildings, fountains, and statuary (stntulrx at 

 large, as a legal friend calls the latter), expresses a purpose of getting more delight 

 from the garden, and of a kind that it is too well known it does not often afford, es- 

 pecially when they arp dhplaycil with the utmost effort. A (juiet seat in a secluded 

 nook, sheltered from the sun and rain, with a book-shelf partially filled, and sur- 

 mounted by a modest bust of Thomson or Milton, expresses a purpose that no one 

 can mistake, and if the seat commands a view of interest — as of a busy city, at the 

 time when its toiling thousands are making up their bank payments, or thfc sailor is 

 unfurling his artificial wings for a distant clime, everything is combined to make 

 one hug his solitude, and to entice us to useful retirement and contemplation. Place 

 the same building in a conspicuous walk, frequented by every transient passer, in a 

 glaring sun, and looking upon an unsightly object, and the entire solace of agreeable 

 associations is lost, even though the same poets court your attention. 



A double row of evergreens placed so as to keep off the northern blast, and fea- 

 thered to the ground, forms, on the southern side, a winter's walk, genial to the 

 mind as well as the body, where one can stroll defiant of nature's gusts, with the 

 feeling of admiration for the mind that planned and the hand that directed so pur- 

 posed and excellent a result. Visit this man's neighbor, who has not avSsisted nature 

 to come to his aid, and you find his family complaining of the bitter cold, afraid to 

 venture abroad least they lose their hats or their tempers, deprived of wholesome air 

 and exercise, without animation and devoid of purpose. 



In the interior of a dwelling the same expressions strike you or not in proportion 

 as forethotight and refinement have planned and executed. Well-assorted colors in 

 furniture, hangings and carpets, are not combined without study aided by taste; how 

 often do we see green, purple, and orange colours congregated, without their owner 

 being aware that they are almost annihilated by mixture, and much improved by 

 contiguity with red, yellow, and blue colors respectively. The most expensively 

 furnished room may be utterly valueless and even painful to the eye of taste where 

 well-known rules in this respect are violated. The dining room should not be hung 

 with pictures calling forth melancholy associations, but rather with portraits of game 

 and sporting scenes; venison is a more agreeable thought at dinner than the head 

 of "St. John the Baptist in a charger," borne by an awkward damsel in a short 

 apron. The very paper on the walls should have its expression, and the light should 

 be admitted so as to cast cheerfulness over the guests; these are not such entirely 

 artificial feelings and results, but that they may be introduced more or less into the 

 humblest cottage where the owner thinks it due to his wife and children to sit down 

 to dine with clean hands and his coat on his back. y 



The dining room naturally suggests the connection that exists between it and the 

 kitchen; where the latter is buried under ground, as we too often see in Country 



