EELATIONS OF TEEES TO OENAMENT. 



Tastj! is a very arbitrary principle, the result of certain 

 conventional rules as changeable as fashion, and not 

 essentially differing from it. So various are the rules 

 which have been established at different times by the 

 arbiters of taste, that I am persuaded, if they were entire- 

 ly disregarded in our operations for improving the face of 

 the country, and if, in the place of them, vs^e were gov- 

 erned by a far-seeing and rational principle of utility, we 

 should promote in the highest degree the beauty of land- 

 scape. Taste is but another name for fashion in every 

 department of art ; and the works of those who are gov- 

 erned by an exclusive regard for its canons end only in 

 the display of pride, and create a kind of scenery that 

 is powerless in producing agreeable impressions. The 

 most ignorant rustic would not be so apt to spoil the 

 aspect of his farm as an "improver." The vandalism 

 of taste is of aU kinds of vandalism the most destructive 

 of the genuine beauty of nature. If we persuade men 

 that "the beautiful" must be seen in all their works, 

 they will make their grounds and their buildings exces- 

 sively ornate and showy, because but few have any clear 

 conceptions of that kind of beauty which appeals to a 

 rational and poetic sentiment. 



It win be said, on the other hand, that our ancestors 

 disregarded all considerations of taste, governing their 

 practice entirely by their ideas of utibty and convenience ; 

 hence the bald and unsightly appearance of many old N"ew 

 England homesteads. I reply that these old places in 



