§30. 



INCONSISTENT COMBINATIONS. 



221 



in your grasp. A want of skill in the maker is also implied 

 by the completion of his work in a different substance. 



Many a glass or porcelain vase might remain without 

 handles if the maker did not apply in his embarrassment to a 

 friend in another trade ; and as the good-natured smith has 

 come to the rescue on one occasion, he is naturally appealed 

 to on another. A glass, therefore, having accidentally come 

 out as a long cup {fig. 1), without a foot to stand upon, the 

 smith is again solicited to supply the deficient member ; and 

 lest any superior invention should contrast too strongly with 

 the poverty of the original cup, the metal stand humbly 



(10.) 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



imitates its companion, and finds its own security in a 

 mass of nondescript groundwork, or imaginary vegetation 

 {fig. 2). It will be fortunate too if its deformity is not 

 increased by the contrast of metals of two different colours 

 besides that of metal and porcelain in the flower, as so often 

 seen in fanciful candlesticks, and other objects supposed to be 

 ornamental {fig. 3).] Nor can we admit the excuse that the 

 lower part represents the calyx of a flower. There is no reason 

 that a cup, a work of art, should imitate any natural object. 

 A flower performing an office not belonging to it is out of 

 place : and when composed of two different substances, it is 

 still more objectionable. 



