38 



Symmetry. There appears to be in the human mind 

 a natural love of order and symmetry. 

 Children, who at first draw a house upon 

 a slate, generally represent it with corre- 

 spondent parts; it is so with the infancy 

 of taste. Those who during the early 

 part of life have given little attention to 

 objects of taste, are captivated with the 

 regularity and symmetry of correspond- 

 ent parts, without any knowledge of con- 

 gruity, or an harmony of parts with the 

 whole: this accounts for those numerous 

 specimens of bad taste, M'hich are so com- 

 monly observable in the neighbourhood 

 of great towns, where we see Grecian 

 villas spreading their little Gothic wings, 

 and red brick castles, supported by Gre- 

 cian pavilions: but though congruity may 

 be banished, symmetry is never forgotten. 

 If such be the love of symmetry in the 

 human mind, it surel}' becomes a fair 

 object of inquiry, how far it ought to be 

 admitted or rejected in modern garden- 

 ing. The following observation from 

 Montesquieu on Taste seems to place the 

 subject in a proper light. 



