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were meant to be ornamental, were intended to
adorn streets and squares, rather than parks or
The Greek temples were, almost
gardens.
always, of an oblong square; and, as the cells
were, in general, small and simple, their magni-
ficence was displayed in the lofty and spacious
colonnades, which surrounded them; consisting,
sometimes of single, and sometimes of double
rows of pillars; which, by the richness and
variety of their effects, contributed, in the
highest degree, to embellish and adorn the
cities; and, by excluding the sun and rain, and
admitting the air, afforded the most grateful
walks to the inhabitants: where those, who
could afford to be idle, passed the greatest part
of their time in discussing the common topics
of business or pleasure, politics or philosophy.

41. These regular structures being the only monuments of ancient taste and magnificence in architecture, that remained, at the resurrection of the arts, in a state sufficiently entire to be perfectly understood, the revivers of the Grecian style copied it servilely from them, and applied it indiscriminately to country, as well as town houses: but, as they felt its incongruity with the surrounding scenery of unimproved and unperverted nature, they endeavoured to make that conform to it, as far as it was within their reach, or under their control. Hence probably arose the Italian style

of gardening; though other causes, which will be hereafter noticed, may have co-operated.

42. Since the introduction of another style of ornamental gardening, called at first oriental, and afterwards landscape gardening (probably from its efficacy in destroying all picturesque composition) Grecian temples have been employed as decorations by almost all persons, who could afford to indulge their taste in objects so costly: but, though executed, in many instances, on a scale and in a manner suitable to the design, disappointment has, I believe, been invariably the result. Nevertheless they are unquestionably beautiful, being exactly copied from those models, which have stood the criticism of many successive ages, and been constantly beheld with delight and admiration. In the rich lawns and shrubberies of England, however, they lose all that power to please which they so eminently possess on the barren hills of Agrigentum and Segesta, or the naked plains of Pæstum and Athens. But barren and naked as these hills and plains are, they are still, if I may say so, their native hills and plains—the scenery, in which they sprang; and in which the mind, therefore, contemplates them connected and associated with numberless interesting circumstances, both local and historical-both physical and moral, upon which it delights to dwell. In our parks and gardens,

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on the contrary, they stand wholly unconnected with all that surrounds them-mere unmeaning excrescences; or, what is worse, manifestly meant for ornament, and therefore having no accessory character, but that of ostentatious vanity: so that, instead of exciting any interest, they vitiate and destroy that, which the naturalized objects of the country connected with them would otherwise excite. Even if the landscape scenery should be rendered really beautiful by such ornaments, its beauty will be that of a vain and affected coquette; which, though it may allure the sense, offends the understanding; and, on the whole, excites more disgust than pleasure. In all matters of this kind, the imagination must be conciliated before the eye can be delighted.

43. Many of the less important productions of ancient art; such as coins, &c. owe much of the interest, which they excite; and, consequently, much of the value, which they have acquired, to the same principle of association. Considered individually, as detached specimens of art, their value may seem inadequate to the prices sometimes paid for them: but, nevertheless, when viewed in a series, and considered as exhibiting genuine though minute examples of the rise, progress, perfection, and decay of imitative art, employed upon the noblest subjects, the images of gods, heroes, and princes,

among those nations, from which all excellence

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in art and literature is derived, they stand con- Of Imagina nected with subjects so interesting and important, that they become truly interesting and important themselves; as far at least as any objects of mere elegant taste and speculative study can be interesting and important. It is true, that, in this, as in all other pursuits of the kind, the province of taste and science has been sometimes usurped by vanity and affectation displayed in the silly desire of possessing, at any price, that which has no other merit than being rare but, nevertheless, I believe that instances of it are much less common, than they are generally supposed to be:—at least very few have come to my knowledge, during a very long and extensive acquaintance with such pursuits and their votaries, through most parts of Europe. As for the hacknied tales of Othos, &c. so often employed to ridicule collectors, they are, I believe, entirely fictitious; every collector, who has any knowledge of the subject, being well aware that no such coin as the Latin one of Otho, supposed to be the ultimate object of his hopes and desires, ever did exist; and as for those struck in the eastern provinces of the empire, they are neither rare nor valuable in any high degree. Rareness certainly adds to the value of that, which is in itself valuable and interesting, either as an object of taste or

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science; but the mere frivolous distinction of possessing that, which others have not, is such as no man of common sense can reasonably be supposed ambitious of.

44. Nearly connected with propriety or congruity, is symmetry, or the fitness and proportion of parts to each other, and to the whole: -a necessary ingredient to beauty in all composite forms; and one, which alone entitles them, in many instances, to be called beautiful. It depends entirely upon the association of ideas, and not at all upon either abstract reason or organic sensation; otherwise, like harmony in sound or colour, it would result equally from the same comparative relations in all objects; which is so far from being the case, that the same relative dimensions, which make one animal beautiful, make another absolutely ugly. That, which is the most exquisite symmetry in a horse, would be the most gross deformity in an elephant, and vice versá: but the same proportionate combinations of sound, which produce harmony in a fiddle, produce it also in a flute or a harp.

45. In many productions of art, symmetry is still more apparently the result of arbitrary convention; that is, it proceeds from an association of ideas, which have not been so invariably associated; and which are, therefore, less intimately and firmly connected. In a Grecian

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