Gardening being in China brought to greater perfection than in any other known country, we shall close our prefent fubject with a flight view of Chinese gardens, which are found entirely obfequious to the principles that govern every one of the fine arts. In general, it is an indifpenfable law there, never to deviate from nature: but in order to produce that degree of variety which is pleafing, every method confiftent with nature is put in practice. Nature is ftrictly imitated in the banks of their artificial lakes and rivers; which sometimes are bare and gravelly, fometimes covered with wood quite to the brink of the water. To flat spots adorned with flowers and shrubs, are oppofed others fleep and rocky. We fee meadows covered with cattle; ricegrounds that run into lakes; groves into which enter navigable creeks and rivulets: thefe generally conduct to fome interefting object, a magnificent building, terraces cut in a mountain, a cascade, a grotto, an artificial rock, or fuch like. Their artificial rivers are generally ferpentine; fometimes narrow, noify, and rapid; fometimes deep, broad, and flow: and to make the scene still more active, mills and other moving machines are often erected In the lakes are interfperfed iflands; fome barren, furrounded with rocks and shoals; others enriched with every thing that art and nature can furnish Even in their calcades they avoid regularity, as forcing nature out of its courfe: the waters are feen bursting from the caverns and windings of the artificial rocks, here an impetuous cataract, there many leffer falls; and the ftream orten impeded by trees and ftones, that feem brought down by the violence of the current. Straight lines are tometimes indulged, in order to take the advantage of fome interesting object at a distance, by directing openings upon it. Senfible of the influence of contrast, the Chinese artifts deal in fudden tranfirions, and in oppofing to each other, forms, colours, and fhades. The eye is conduct 66 ed, gardens of Epicurus are out of bloom: he is too much a philofopher who will rigidly profcribe the flowers and aromatics of fummer, to fit con ly under the cypress shade." ed, from limited to extenfive views, and from lakes and rivers to plains, hills, and woods to dark and gloomy colours, are opposed the more brilliant: the different maffes of light and fhade are difpoled in such a manner, as to render the composition diftinct in its parts, and ftriking on the whole. In plantations, the trees are artfully mixed according to their fhape and colour; thofe of fpreading branches with the pyramidal, and the light green with the deep green. They even introduce decay'd trees, fome erect, and fome half out of the ground*. In order to heighten contraft, much bolder strokes are risked: they sometimes introduce rough rock, dark caverns, trees ill formed, and feemingly rent by tempests, or blafted by lightening; a building in ruins, or half confumed by fire. But to relieve the mind from the harshness of such objects, the fweetest and most beautiful scenes are always made to fucceed. The Chinese ftudy to give play to the imagination: they hide the termination of their lakes; and commonly interrupt the view of a calcade by trees, through which are feen obfcurely the waters as they fall. The imagination once roufed, is difpofed to magnify every object. Nothing is more ftudied in Chinese gardens than to raise wonder or furprife. In fcenes calculated for that end, every thing appears like fairy-land; a torrent, for example, convey'd under ground, puzzling a ftranger by its uncommon found to guess what it may be; and, to multiply fuch uncommon founds, the rocks and buildings are contrived with cavities and interttices. Sometimes one is led infenfibly into a dark cavern, terminating unexpectedly in a landfcape enriched with all that nature affords the most delicious. At other times, beautiful walks infenfibly conduct us to a rough uncultivated field, where bushes, briers and ftones interrupt the paffage looking about for an outlet, fome rich prof pect • Tafte bas fuggefted to Kent the fame artifice. The placing a decay'd tree properly, contributes to contraft; and alfo in a penfive or fedate state of mind produces a fort of pity, grounded on an imaginary perfonification. pect unexpectedly open to view. Another artifice is, to obfcure fome capital part by trees or other interpofed objects: our curiofity is raised to know what lies beyond; and after a few fteps, we are greatly furprised with some scene totally different from what was pected ex Thefe curfory obfervations upon gardening, fhall be clofed with fome reflections that must touch every reader. Rough uncultivated ground, dismal to the eye, infpires peevishness and difcontent may not this be one caufe of the harsh manners of favages? A field richly ornamented, containing beautiful objects of various kinds, difplays in full luftre the goodnefs of the Deity, and the ample provifion he has made for our happiness; which must fill every fpectator with gratitude to his Maker, and with benevolence to his fellow creatures. Other fine arts may be perverted to excite irregular, and even vicious, emotions: but gardening, which infpires the purest and most refined pleasures, cannot fail to promote every good affection. The gaiety and harmony of mind it produceth, inclining the spectator to communicate his fatisfaction to others, and to make them happy as he is himself, tend naturally to establish in him a habit of humanity and benevolence *. It is not eafy to fupprefs a certain degree of enthusiafm when we reflect upon the advantages of gardening with refpect to virtuous education. In early youth the deepest impreffions are made; and it is a fad truth, that the young ftudent familiarized to the dirtinefs and diforder of many colleges pent within narrow bounds in populous cities, is rendered in a measure infenfible to the elegant beauties of art and nature. Would not every great man who loves his country, and wishes his countrymen to make a figure, be zealous to reform this evil? * The manufactures of filk, flax, and cotton, in their prefent advance toward perfection, may be held as inferior branches of the fine arts; because their productions in drefs and in furniture are beautiful like thofe of the fine arts, and infpire gay and kindly emotions favourable to morality, fimilar to what are infpired by a garden or other production of the fine arts. evil? It feems to me far from an exaggeration, that good profeffors are not more effential to a college, than a fpacious garden fweetly ornamented, but without any thing glaring or bizarre, fo as upon the whole to infpire our youth with a tafte not lefs for fimplicity than for elegance. In that refpect, the univerfity of Oxford may justly be deemed a model. Having finished what occurred on gardening, I proceed to rules and obfervations that more peculiarly concern architecture. Architecture, being an useful as well as a fine art, leads us to diftinguish buildings and parts of buildings into three kinds, viz. what are intended for utility folely, what for ornament folely, and what for both. Buildings intended for utility folely, fuch as detached offices, ought in every part to correfpond precifely to that intention: the flighteft deviation from the end in view, will by every perfon of tafte be thought a defect or blemish. In general, it is the perfection of every work of art, that it fulfills the purpose for which it is intended; and every other beauty, in oppofition, is neglected as improper. In things again intended for ornament, fuch as pillars, obelisks, triumphal arches, beauty folely ought to be regarded a Heathen temple must be confidered as merely ornamental; for being de. dicated to fome deity, and not intended for habitation, it is fufceptible of any figure and any embellishment that fancy can fuggeft and beauty require. The great difficulty of contrivance, refpects buildings that are intended to be useful as well as ornamental. These ends, employing different and often oppofite means, are feldom united in perfection; and the only practicable method in fuch buildings is, to favour or neglect ornament according to the character of the building in palaces, and other edifices fufficiently extenfive to admit a variety of useful contrivance, regularity juftly takes the lead; but in dwelling houfes that are too fmall for variety of contrivance, utility ought to prevail, neglecting regularity fo far as it ftands in oppofition to convenience *. VOL. II. Intrinfic N : * A building muft be large to produce any fenfible emotion of regularity, proportion, or beauty; which is an additional reafon for minding convenience only in a dwelling-house of small size. Intrinfic and relative beauty being founded on different principles, muft be handled feparately; and I begin with relative beauty, as of the greater importance. The proportions of a door, are determined by the ufe to which it is deftin'd. The door of a dwellinghouse, which ought to correfpond to the human fize, is confined to seven or eight feet in height, and three or four in breadth. The proportions proper for the door of a barn or coach-house, are widely different. Another confideration enters: to study intrinfic beauty in a coachhouse or barn, intended merely for ufe, is obviously improper. But a dwelling-houfe may admit ornaments; and the principal doors of a palace demands all the grandeur that is confiftent with the foregoing proportions dictated by utility: it ought to be elevated, and approached by steps; and it may be adorned with pillars fupporting an architrave, or in any other beautiful manner. The door of a church ought to be wide, in order to afford an easy paffage for a multitude: the wideness, at the fame time, regulates the height, as will appear by and by. The fize of windows ought to be proportioned to that of the room they illuminate; for if the apertures be not fufficiently large to convey light to every corner, the room is unequally lighted, which is a great deformity. Steps of ftairs ought to be accommodated to the human figure, without regarding any other proportion: these steps accordingly are the fame in large and in fmall buildings, because both are inhabited by men of the fame fize. I proceed to confider intrinfic beauty blended with that which is relative. Though a cube in itself be more agreeable than a parallelopipedon, yet a large building in the form of a cube, appears lumpish and heavy ; whereas the other figure, fet on its fmaller bafe, is by its elevation more agreeable, and hence the beauty of a Gothic tower. But fuppofing that a parallelopipedon is deftin'd for a dwelling-houfe, to make way for relative beauty, we immediately perceive that utility ought chiefly to be regarded, and that this figure, inconvenient by its height, ought to be fet upon its larger height; the loftinefs is gone; but that lofs is more than compenfated by additional convenience; and for that reafon the form |