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attached houses exactly alike, and frequently to unite under 

 one design in the form of a terrace, a number of dwelling 

 houses, giving to a dozen or more, the appearance of one large 

 mansion or palace. The object of this essay is to shew that 

 these and some other practices have not been adopted in con- 

 formity with correct principle. With respect to the straight 

 line, its selection, I apprehend, originated in a just aversion 

 to the crooked, jagged, tortuous forms, with abrupt, almost 

 right angled bends, so much reprehended in the old towns and 

 cities, and under the impression on the part of the projectors, 

 that by introducing a form with properties the very antithesis 

 of all these, they would doubtless be right. In other words, 

 the reaction in favour of a better mode was not attended by a 

 due consideration of the laws and conditions upon which beauty 

 depends ; they took the course diametrically opposite to the 

 rejected one instead of instituting an enquiry into natural 

 principle. In the practice of invariably joining houses 

 together, and putting them in uniform, principles everywhere 

 manifested in nature have been unheeded — individuality and 

 diversity : between human habitations and human beings an 

 analogy exists, and if we look into nature in reference to the 

 latter, we find a plan pursued very different to that of builders. 

 Nature never loses sight of individuality, — she does not occa- 

 sionally usher into the world, to lighten her task of invention, a 

 group of half a dozen or a dozen men, exactly alike in size, 

 form, and feature ; and we should shrink with horror at the sight 

 of a dozen corporeally attached men : yet, the practices to which 

 I have called attention in reference to houses, are no less opposed 

 to the dictates of good taste and enlightened judgment, than 

 such phenomena would be to the usual course of nature. In 

 short, it cannot be disputed if we allow the analogy of nature, 

 that in dwelling houses as in the human species, there should 

 not only be individuality, but that houses for different persons 

 to inhabit, should be of different designs, if not suiting the 

 varied tastes of the occupants, at least symbolizing the pecu- 



