48 AMERICAN HANDBOOK 



as if to balance the whole. Another, dis 

 gusted with such abortions of taste, plunges 

 into the opposite error. His place has the 

 appearance of having fallen into the hands 

 of men of all principles, ages, and nations, 

 each one of whom had successively stuck on 

 a patch, till, between the daubs of so many 

 brushes on their objectionable part of the 

 picture, little of the original design is left. 



45. Variety is not opposed to unity. The 

 oneness should be in the outline ; the more 

 varied, then, the filling up, the better. The 

 carriage entrance to an old mansion is often 

 improved by a row of trees on each side. 

 Each set of two placed opposite to one an 

 other, should of course correspond. One 

 would as soon see beauty in one gate-post, 

 or one eye being larger than the other, as to 

 see anything different in this respect. Yet 

 there could be no objection to the successive 

 sets of trees varying in species or varieties, 

 so long as no rule of harmony was broken 

 thereby. A light, airy-looking tree, like the 

 hemlock-spruce, should not be placed imme 

 diately after a rugged, artificial-looking Nor 

 way. Its gracefulness would be in part 



