Beauties and Principles of the Art 45 



der of brick or stone, with long and narrow windows. How- 

 ever well such a building may be constructed, or however 

 nicely the different proportions of the edifice may be ad- 

 justed, it is evident it can never form a satisfactory whole. 

 The mind can only account for such an absurdity, by sup- 

 posing it to have been built by two individuals, or at two 

 different times, as there is nothing indicating unity of mind 

 in its composition. 



In Landscape Gardening, violations of the principle of 

 unity are often to be met with, and they are always indica- 

 tive of the absence of correct taste in art. Looking upon 

 a landscape from the windows of a villa residence, we 

 sometimes see a considerable portion of the view embraced 

 by the eye, laid out in natural groups of trees and shrubs, 

 and upon one side, or perhaps in the middle of the same 

 scene, a formal avenue leading directly up to the house. 

 Such a view can never appear a satisfactory whole, because 

 we experience a confusion of sensations in contemplating it. 

 There is an evident incongruity in bringing two modes of 

 arranging plantations, so totally different, under the eye at 

 one moment, which distracts, rather than pleases the mind. 

 In this example, the avenue, taken by itself, may be a 

 beautiful object, and the groups and connected masses 

 may, in themselves, be elegant; yet if the two portions are 

 seen together, they will not form a whole, because they 

 cannot make a composite idea. For the same reason, there 

 is something unpleasing in the introduction of fruit trees 

 among elegant ornamental trees on a lawn, or even in 

 assembling together, in the same beds, flowering plants and 

 culinary vegetables - - one class of vegetation suggesting the 

 useful and homely alone to the mind, and the other, avow- 

 edly, only the ornamental. 



In the arrangement of a large extent of surface, where a 

 great many objects are necessarily presented to the eye at 

 once, the principle of unity will suggest that there should 

 be some grand or leading features to which the others 

 should be merely subordinate. Thus, in grouping trees, 

 there should be some large and striking masses to which 



