100 Observations on Architecture. 



fered less than the sister arts. Such has been the perversion 

 in this art. to which its professors have contributed largely, 

 that our villas, mansions, <kc, have been metamorphosed ; 

 and, in too many instances, columns have been dismantled 

 and entablatures overthrown, to be replaced by a battle- 

 minted pofch, a tower, or some other device from a Gothic 

 model. By this deemon of innovation- have some of our 

 most regular structures been destroyed; and others con- 

 tinue to be destroyed, to place in their stead a melmige style, 

 adapted neither to give comfort nor elegance to the habitation 

 of man. That such a fashion should obtain a footing in our 

 inland at the present period of mental improvement, is not 

 to be accounted for upon the common principles of human- 

 measurement. That our nobility, who affect to admire- 

 every thing that is Grecian, should, instead of encouraging 

 classic architecture, surround themselves with pinnacles 

 and stained glass, the emblems of superstition and igno- 

 rance, (and with these, too, of the most stupid and clumsy 

 imitation, without pretension to the character or chasteness 

 of the original,) will be viewed, it is to be hoped, with 

 astonishment at a period not very remote. Good taste has 

 its foundation in good sense ; but there is not much of either 

 in giving to a modern gentleman's residence the form of 

 an abbey or of a castle : — fitness shoukl be the end ; but 

 this practice stands opposed to it, for that cannot be fit- 

 ness which erects towers and constructs forts, where nei- 

 ther protection nor observation are necessarv or anticipated-. 

 A statistical writer, speaking of this practice, says,, he 

 " would suggest the impropriety of making a house or any 

 o.her object bear an outward appearance intended to contra- 

 dict its inward use; all' castellated or gothicised houses, all' 

 church-like barns, or fort-like pig-styes, he should con- 

 ceive to be objectionable : they are intended to deceive, and 

 they tell you that they are intended to deceive." It is from 

 such practice as this, without principles, and consequently 

 capricious, that architecture has fallen, not only in com- 

 parison with the sister arts, but likewise in public estima- 

 tion ; and it will continue so to do until its professors aim 

 at a reputation more iasting than can be obtained by such. 



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