INTRODUCTION. 



15 



society and agricultural cultivation. What is useful and con- 

 venient in one age, may be useless, cumbersome, or inadequate 

 in another. And what is ornament to a rude people in a wild 

 country, may, where society are in a more polished state, and 

 the face of nature regularly cultivated, be rejected for a portion 

 of that wildness or natural beauty, formerly neglected for its 

 superabundance, but now becoming valuable, not only from 

 its rarity but congeniality to the human mind, when men are 

 in that stage of improvement most proper for the discernment 

 of real beauty. 



In the following treatise the rules of good taste, derived 

 from natural scenery; and those of utility and conveni- 

 ence, derived from the wants of every rank in the present state 

 of society, form the general principles. The arrangement of 

 such a work appears natural and easy. The first thing that 

 would seem requisite, is to enquire into the principles of 

 taste or beauty. This done, the next thing would be to enquire 

 how far that art (painting) could assist us which has con- 

 fessedly for its object the study of the effects of scenery. This 

 is attempted in the essay on painting. These essays form the 

 standard of beauty which is applied throughout the whole 

 work. After treating on taste and painting, I proceed to those 

 arts which regard utility, in connection with beauty; these 

 are, architecture, agriculture, useful or kitchen gardening, orna- 

 mental or parterre gardening, picturesque improvement, useful and 



