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be suspected of having combated the des- 

 potism of others, in order to establish any 

 arbitrary opinions of my own : but a phy- 

 sician must proportion his remedy to the 

 degree, as well as to the nature of the dis- 

 ease; and bareness, monotony, and want 

 of connection, are in a high degree the 

 diseases of modern improvement. Had the 

 opposite system prevailed (and in the revo- 

 lutions to which fashion is subject, it may 

 still prevail) had all buildings of every kind 

 been encumbered by trees, or had they, 

 from a rage for the picturesque, been fan- 

 tastically designed, with an endless diver- 

 sity of different heights and breaks, with 

 odd projections and separations, — I should 

 equally have taken my arguments from the 

 works of eminent painters as well as of 

 architects, against such a departure from 

 all grandeur, elegance, and simplicity. 



The best preservative against flatness 

 and monotony on the one hand, and whim- 

 sical variety on the other, is an attentive 

 study of what constitutes the grand, the 

 beautiful, and the picturesque in buildings, 



