262 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Part II. 



fallacious notion that being found to look well in one place, 

 they must of necessity look equally well in another. This 

 results from the common habit of putting together different 

 parts to form a whole, instead of making the ornaments part 

 of one general design. They should be introduced for a 

 purpose, and not appear as if they were there by accident, 

 without any relation to their neighbours. However varied, 

 they should be analogous in their general character ; and it 

 may even be questioned, whether the feathered scroll orna- 

 ments at the Alhambra, so admirably suited to those of its 

 patterns which are curvilinear, accord well with the purely 

 geometrical and rectangular ones with which they are some- 

 times combined in that exquisite building. 



To unite Greek with Chinese, or Saracenic, ornaments 

 would be a glaring incongruity ; but we sometimes see com- 

 binations almost as bad, depriving a design of that harmony 

 of parts which is so necessary an element of the beautiful. 



[In designs intended to cover floors, or walls, where a 

 large surface is to be at once presented to the eye, several 

 conditions are to be attended to ; and what may look well in 

 one place may become offensive in another. Thus, the size 

 of patterns must depend upon the dimensions of the place 

 where they are to be introduced; and a large pattern in a 

 small chamber takes off from its size, and makes it appear 

 still smaller : as do large compartments or panels, either in 

 (43.) ^he ceilings or the walls. Lines, again, are 



r^\ 



r\ 



poor and monotonous, if repeated over an ex- 



tensive surface ; striped curtains can only find 

 an excuse when intended to give height to a 

 low room ;] and the effect of vertical lines for 

 this purpose is readily perceived when one ob- 

 ject so striped is placed near another having a 

 plain surface, or barred with horizontal lines. Thus, when 

 one of two adjacent windows is divided into two lights by 



