PART I. OF TASTE. 53 



matured, run great risk of producing absurdities, even though 

 they may have good taste and sense in other kinds of produc- 

 tions. And the misfortune is, that persons who begin to im- 

 prove in this stage think that no effect can be produced without 

 performing a great deal, or overcoming some natural ob- 

 stacle, the doing of which may excite the admiration of 

 their neighbours ; and the common consequence is, that they 

 involve themselves in an immense expense without producing 

 any adequate beauty or advantage. But those whose more 

 matured judgment may enable them to think for themselves 

 will, in all probability, produce effects striking and natural, 

 even without the aid of much experience. A taste for beauty, 

 even though unattended with mature judgment, will most fre- 

 quently be of vast importance, as well to those who lay out 

 their own grounds, as to those who commit them in some degree 

 to others. It will enable them to throw off the trammels of 

 custom, prejudice, or system, and give way to the natural feel- 

 ings of the heart. In this way, a proprietor would get his house 

 or his place formed in a style analogous to his own mind, which 

 would unquestionably give him more pleasure than any other 

 style. 



