1G8 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Pakt II. 



guished above all the rest of the community by correct taste : 

 the few who possess it are the exception, and the exhibition 

 of objects of their choice too frequently demonstrates an 

 admiration for meretricious ornament and faulty design.] * 



In no country is the cultivation of taste more necessary 

 than in England. The advantages of climate, the richness of 

 colour, and the beauty of nature, as well as the facility of 

 studying her works, in Greece, Italy, and some other coun- 

 tries of the south, have been far greater than with us. Living 

 as we do so much more in-doors, and in a gloomy climate, our 

 ideas of beauty are less expanded by the contemplation of 

 nature under her best aspect : it is therefore of the greatest 

 importance that the objects we have before us in our houses, 

 to which we are so much indebted for our early impressions, 

 should be beautiful and in good taste ; in order that the eye 

 may be educated by the habit of seeing what is good. At 

 present the earliest directions given to taste are quite the 

 other way ; and whether you enter the cottage, or the mansion 

 of the rich, you find an abundance of frightful ornaments : 

 not from any deficiency of the wish to possess what is good, 

 but from the inability to appreciate or select it. 



2. [One great impediment to the cultivation of taste is the 

 notion that beautiful designs are only to be found in expen- 

 sive objects, and are therefore out of reach of all but the 

 wealthy ; and, indeed, when there are few capable of making 

 good designs, the conclusion is not drawn without some show 

 of reason, rendering it all the more necessary to remedy this 

 impediment by a more extended art-education. For, as long 

 as taste is confined to a few individuals, and is not introduced 

 into the ordinary ornaments and utensils of common life, it 

 will continue to be almost an exotic plant, and a mere luxury. 

 "Arts of production" can only be beautiful in proportion 



* The portions within brackets were written in 1854, and published in the 

 " Builder " of that year. 



