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it had many circumstances of a similar kind 

 and effect : as I have long since perceived 

 the advantage which I could have made of 

 them, and how much I could have added to 

 that effect ; how well I could in parts have 

 mixed the modern style, and have altered 

 and concealed many of the stiff and glaring 

 formalities, I have long regretted its destruc- 

 tion. I destroyed it, not from disliking it ; 

 on the contrary, it was a sacrifice I made 

 against my own sensations, to the prevailing 

 opinion. I doomed it and all its embellish- 

 ments, with which I had formed such an 

 early connection, to sudden and total de- 

 struction ; probably much upon the same 

 idea, as many a man of careless, unreflect- 

 ing, unfeeling good-nature, thought it his 

 duty to vote for demolishing towns, pro- 

 vinces, and their inhabitants, in America : 

 like me (but how different the scale and the 

 interest !) they chose to admit it as a prin- 

 ciple, that whatever obstructed the prevail- 

 ing system, must be all thrown down, all laid 

 prostrate : no medium, no conciliatory me- 



