246 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Part II. 



well even in its proper place, before an Egyptian building, 

 when unsculptured.* But I do not suppose that copiers of 

 obelisks would advocate the addition of hieroglyphics to any 

 at the present day. If then it is not consistent to preserve 

 this one of its peculiar and pleasing features, how can it be 

 consistent to adopt the obelisk itself — which is injured by 

 the omission ? And as it is inconsistent to adopt the hiero- 

 glyphics with which we have no association of ideas, it is 

 inconsistent to copy the obelisk for the same reason. In 

 short, I see no excuse for its adoption as a monument, except 

 as an acknowledgment of our inability to compose a new 

 design, and the necessity of having recourse to a ready- 

 made model. And we cannot even copy this correctly." 



We may be, and we certainly are, improving ; but we are 

 not happy in our monumental compositions, though there are 

 some of undoubted merit ; and strangers find more to censure 

 than to admire in those of Westminster Abbey and other 

 places. Nor shall we give proofs of inventive genius by copy- 

 ing an obelisk, or a column ; and the addition of a soldier, 

 a lion, or an angel, at each corner, will not raise it to the 

 rank of a good design. 



43 [It is not only the genius for composition that is 

 deficient in this country ; there is also a very general want 

 of perception and correctness of eye, so necessary for judging 

 of form and proportion. But though accuracy of eye is so 

 important, it is only one of many essentials for attaining to 

 excellence in execution, and for appreciating beauty. The 

 nice perception of the Chinese enables them to copy with 

 surprising accuracy ; but still they are deficient in a know- 

 ledge of form ; and much has to be learnt before the merits 

 of good design can be understood in decorative art. Still 

 more requisite is it for the appreciation of the highest 

 branches of painting; and as the ear may detect the least 

 discord in sound, or an imperfection in time, without attain- 



* But it was a mistake to sculpture the faces of the pyramidion. 



