GENEEAL PRINCIPLES. 17 



tised by clifFerent nations, from the earliest ages of human records to the 

 present time. The modern architect may build a house in the classic or in 

 the Gothic style ; or he may adopt the historical and geographical variations 

 of these styles, as exhibited in the Hindoo, Elizabethan, Italian, English, 

 and other manners of building. In like manner, the landscape-gardener, 

 who would lay out grounds at the present day, may adopt either the oldest, 

 or geometrical, style, in which the forms and lines of the house are reflected 

 iu the garden in front of it, and which, as it has been recently shown, was 

 practised by the ancient Egyptians more than 3000 years ago ; or he may 

 adopt the modern, or irregular, style, in which the forms of nature are 

 brought into immediate contrast with the forms of art : and he may, farther, 

 combine the two styles in such a manner as to join regularity and irregularity 

 in one design. In a word, both in architecture and in gardening, the artist 

 of the present day has it in his power to adopt the style or manner of any 

 former age, or of any other country, and adapt it to the wants of the present 

 age, in the country in which he lives. 



22. There are certain principles common to all the arts of desigii and taste, 

 whatever style may be adopted Uy the architect and landscape-gardener, by 

 which both artists must be guided; and certain others, or ratl-^er, perhaps, 

 certain rules, deduced from fundamental principles, which are peculiar to 

 each art. Whatever, either in a building or a garden, cannot be justified on 

 fundamental principles, must undoubtedly be wrong; and whatever cannot be 

 referred to jn-e-established rules must necessarily be new, and may either be 

 right or wrong, according to its consistency or inconsistency with fundamental 

 principles. Hence it is that all the productions of the fine arts, no less than 

 of the mechanical arts, may be subjected to reason ; and, consequently, that 

 when any part is produced, either of a building or of a garden, for which no 

 sufficient reason can be given, that part must be either a superfluity or a 

 deforniitj'. 



23. The fitness of the means employed to the end to he obtained is the 

 most important principle, applicable both to architecture and gardening as 

 useful arts. 



24. The fitness of a building for the end in view ought not only to be 

 real, but apparent. A dwelling-house, for example, ought not to be so con- 

 structed as to be mistaken for a chapel, or a barn, or a manufactory ; nor 

 a chapel, nor any public building, so designed as to be mistaken for a private 

 house. Supports should not only be, but they should appear to be, adequate 

 to the weight to be supported. Hence, when cast-iron pillars are introduced 

 in a brick or stone building, they ought either to be cased or cast hollow, so 

 as to appear of the usual dimensions of brick or stone pillars : or, if the small 

 dimensions required in an iron column are prefer- 

 able, in order to admit more light, the metallic cha- 

 racter of the material ought to be rendered obvious ; T ; 

 by painting or bronzing, or by some such means ; the " ' 

 material of which they are formed ought always to 

 appear obvious at first sight. Stone lintels over 

 openings, when they are not formed of one piece, 



ought to have the joints of the pieces in such a 1 



direction towards a centre as to give them the appear- "'^ t^ 



ance of being the joints of an tu-ch, as in ft/. 1., even 



