Preface 67 



painting, and in architecture, false taste is propagated 

 by the sanction given to mediocrity. 



Its dangerous tendency, added to its frequency, must 

 plead my excuse for taking notice of the following vul- 

 gar mode of expression : " I do not profess to under- 

 stand these matters, but I know what pleases me." 

 This may be the standard of perfection with those who 

 are content to gratify their own taste without inquiring 

 how it may affect others ; but the man of good taste 

 endeavours to investigate the causes of the pleasure he 

 receives, and to inquire whether others receive pleasure 

 also. He knows that the same principles which direct 

 taste in the polite arts direct the judgement in morality; 

 in short, that a knowledge of what is good, what is bad, 

 and what is indifferent, whether in actions, in mariners, 

 in language, in arts, or science, constitutes the basis of 

 good taste and marks the distinction between the higher 

 ranks of polished society and the inferior orders of 

 mankind, whose daily labours allow no leisure for other 

 enjoyments than those of mere sensual, individual, and 

 personal gratification. 



Those who delight in depreciating the present by 

 comparisons with former times may, perhaps, observe 

 a decline of taste in many of the polite arts ; but surely 

 in architecture and gardening, the present era furnishes 

 more examples of attention to comfort and conven- 

 ience than are to be found in the plans of Palladio, 

 Vitruvius, or Le Notre, who, in the display of useless 

 symmetry, often forgot the requisites of habitation. The 

 leading feature in the good taste of modern times is 

 the just sense of general utility. 



A few observations are subjoined to mark those 

 errors, or absurdities in modern gardening and archi- 

 tecture, to which I have never willingly subscribed, and 



