700 



CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE. 



In every part of this work I have had two objects in view ; in 

 the first place, to lay down rational principles of action ; in the 

 second place, to apply these principles to the practical pur- 

 poses of forming and improving residences. If I have suc- 

 ceeded so as to make myself understood, the reader will per- 

 ceive that this art, which has no other foundation among its 

 professors than whim, caprice, or fashion (and in which one of 

 them (Mr.Repton), who has attempted to discover fixed princi- 

 ples, has displayed only confusion and incongruity in the at- 

 tempt), is founded in beauty, use, and adaption to the proprietor ; 

 which, applied to a residence as a whole, may be comprehended 

 in one epithet, unity of character*. If, in treating of any 

 part of this whole, it appear that I have failed in the application 

 of general principles, the blame must be attributed to the author, 

 and not to these principles. I flatter myself, however, from 



* Thus the principles of taste, and of all the polite arts, are ultimately resolved 

 into those of common sense ; for what is character or expression, (the end of all 

 these arts,) but just objects appearing to be what they really are. 



