PART I. OF TASTE. 35 



modifications of matter. Variety is composed by uniting dif- 

 ferent degrees of the same modifications ; but harmony admits 

 of modifications of different kinds. In other respects, their ge- 

 neral principles are the same. Harmony lies between discord 

 and variety ; and the great art in forming harmonious combi- 

 nations in architecture, music, and painting, in which arts it 

 is best understood, is to prevent it from degenerating into the 

 one, and proceeding to the excess of the other. The irregular 

 style of Gothic architecture affords ample scope for contrasts, 

 both in the form and disposition of solids, and in the magni- 

 tude, shape, and disposition of openings ; from productions of 

 this kind it is easy to perceive that most artists are more in- 

 fluenced by Grecian architecture and a veneration for anti- 

 quity, than guided by any fundamental principles. Hence 

 the frequent absence not only of harmony but of the lesser 

 beauties of fitness, intricacy, and variety. 



CHAPTER IV. 



OF SUCH COMBINATIONS OF THE MODIFICATIONS OF MATTER 

 AS ARE PRODUCTIVE OF PARTICULAR EXPRESSIONS AND 

 CORRESPONDENT EFFECTS ON THE MIND, AND WHICH 

 MAY BE DENOMINATED CHARACTERS. 



But intricacy, harmony, or variety, or any other merely 

 pleasing combination of the qualities or modifications of matter, 



F 2 



