but there is a beauty in utility; and in difcourfing of beauty, that of utility must not be neglected. This leads us to confider gardens and buildings in different views they may be destined for ufe folely, for beauty folely, or for both. Such variety of deftination, bestows upon thefe arts a great command of beauties, complex no less than various. Hence the difficulty of forming an accurate tafte in gardening and architecture: and hence that difference and wavering of taste in these arts, greater than in any art that has but a fingle deftination. Architecture and gardening cannot otherwife entertain the mind, but by raifing certain agreeable emotions or feelings; with which we muft begin, as the true foundation of all the rules of criticifm that govern thefe arts. Poetry, as to its power of raifing emotions, poffeffes juftly the first place among the fine arts; for fcarce any one emotion of human nature is beyond its reach. Painting and fculpture are more circumfcribed, having the command of no emotions but of what are raised by fight: they are peculiarly fuccefsful in expreffing painful paffions, which are difplayed by external figns extremely legible.*. Gardening, befide the emotions of beauty from regularity, order, proportion, colour, and utility, can raise emotions of grandeur, of fweetnefs, of gaiety, of melancholy, of wildness, and even of furprife or wonder. In architecture, the beauties of regularity, order, and proportion, are still more confpicuous than in gardening; but as to the beauty of colour, architecture is far inferior. Grandeur can be expreffed in a building, perhaps more fuccefffully than in a garden; but as to the other emotions. above mentioned, architecture hitherto has not been brought to the perfection of expreffing them diftinctly. * See chap. 15. To To balance that defect, architecture can difplay the beauty of utility in the highest perfection. Gardening indeed poffeffes one advantage, never to be equalled in the other art: in various fcenes, it can raife fucceflively all the different emotions above mentioned. But to produce that delicious effect, the garden must be extenfive, fo as to admit a flow fuceeflion for a fimall garden, comprehended at one view, ought to be confined to one expreffion; it may be gay, it may be fweet, it may be gloomy; but an attempt to mix thefe, would create a jumble of emotions not a little unpleafant.f For the fame reafon, a building, even the moft magnificent, is neceffarily confined to one expreflion. Architecture, confidered as a fine art, inftead of being a rival to gardening in its progrefs, feems not far advanced beyond its infant ftate. To bring it to maturity, two things mainly are wanted. Firft, a greater variety of parts and ornaments than at prefent it feems provided with. Gardening here has greatly the advantage: it is provided with plenty of materials for raifing fcenes without end, affecting the fpectator with variety of emotions. In architecture, on the contrary, materials are fo fcanty, that artifts hitherto have not been fuccefsful in raising any emotions but of beauty and grandeur: with refpect to the former, there are indeed plenty of means, regularity, order, fymmetry, fimplicity, utility; and with refpect to the latter, the addition of fize is fufficient. But though it is evident, that every building ought to have a certain character or expreffion fuited to its destination ; yet this refinement has fcarce been attempted *See chap. 8. "The citizen, who in his villa has but an acre for a garden, muft have it diverfified with every cbje&t that is fuited to an extenfive garden. There must be woods, ftreams, lawns, ftatues, and temples to every god. defs as well as to Cloacina." attempted by any artist. A death's head and bones employed in monumental buildings, will indeed produce an emotion of gloom and melancholy; but fuch ornaments, if thefe can be termed fo, ought to be rejected, because they are in themselves difagreeable. The other thing wanted to bring the art to perfection, is, to ascertain the precife impreffion made by every fingle part and ornament, cupolas, fpires, columns, carvings, ftatues, vafes, &c. for in vain will an artist attempt rules for employing thefe, either fingly or in combination, until the different emotions they produce be diftinctly explained. Gardening in that particular alfo, hath the advantage: the feveral emotions raised by trees, rivers, cafcades, plains, eminences, and its other materials, are underftood; and each emotion can be described with fome degree of precifion, which is attempted occafionally in the foregoing parts of this work. In gardening as well as in architecture, fimplicity ought to be a ruling principle. Profufe ornament hath no better effect than to confound the eye, and to prevent the object from making an impreffion as one entire whole. An artist deftitute of genius for capital beauties, is naturally prompted to fupply the defect by crowding his plan with flight embellishments: hence, in a garden, triumphal arches, Chinese houses, temples, obelisks, cafcades, fountains, without end; and in a building, pillars, vases, statues, and a profufion of carved work. Thus fome women defective in tafte, are apt to overcharge every part of their drefs. with ornament. Superfluity of decoration hath another bad effect it gives the object a diminutive look an ifland in a wide extended lake makes it appear larger; but an artificial lake, which is always little, appears ftill lefs by making an island in it,* *See appendix to part 5. chap. 2. In forming plans for embellishing a field, an artift without tafte employs ftraight lines, circles, fquares; because these look best upon paper. He perceives not, that to humour and adorn nature, is the perfection of his art; and that nature, neglecting regularity, diftributes her objects in great variety with a bold hand. A large field laid out with ftrict regularity, is ftiff and artificial. Nature indeed, in organized bodies comprehended under one view, ftudies regularity, which, for the fame reafon, ought to be ftudied in architecture: but in large objects, which cannot otherwise be furveyed but in parts and by fucceffion, regularity and uniformity would be ufelefs properties, becaufe they cannot be difcovered by the eye. Nature therefore, in her large works, neglects thefe properties; and in copying nature, the artist ought to neglect them, Having thus far carried on a comparison between gardening and architecture; rules peculiar to each come next in order, beginning with gardening. The fimpleft plan of a garden, is that of a fpot embellish ed with a number of natural objects, trees, walks, polished parterres, flowers, ftreams, &c. One more complex comprehends ftatues and buildings, "that nature and art may be mutually ornamental. third, approaching nearer perfection, is of objects af-" fembled together in order to produce, not only an emotion of beauty, but alfo fome other particular emotion, grandeur, for example, gaiety, or any other above A * In France and Italy, a garden is difpofed like the human body, alleys, like legs and arms, answering each other; the great walk in the middle rei refenting the trunk of the body. Thus an artifl void of talle carries felf along into every operation. A fqua e field appears not fuch to the eye when viewed from any part of it; and the centre is the only place where a circular field pre ferves in appearance its regular figure, above mentioned. The completeft plan of a garden is an improvement upon the third, requiring the fev eral parts to be fo arranged, as to inspire all the different emotions that can be raised by gardening. In this plan, the arrangement is an important circumftance; for it has been fhown, that fome emotions figure beft in conjunction, and that others ought always to appear in fucceflion, and never in conjunction. It is mentioned above,* that when the most oppofite emotions, fuch as gloominefs and gaiety, ftillness and activity, follow each other in fucceflion, the pleasure, on the whole, will be the greateft; but that fuch emotions ought not to be united, becaufe they produce an unpleasant mixture. For this reafon, a ruin affording a fort of melancholy pleafure, ought not, to be feen from a flower-parterre which is gay and cheerful. But to pafs from an exhilarating object to a ruin, has a fine effect; for each of the emotions is the more fenfibly felt by being contrafted with the other, Similar emotions, on the other hand, fuch as gaiety and sweetness, stillness and gloominefs, motion and grandeur, ought to be raised. together; for their effects upon the mind are greatly heightened by their conjunction, Kent's method of embellifhing a field, is admirable; which is to replenish it with beautiful objects, natural and artificial, difpofed as they ought to be upon a canvas in painting. It requires indeed more genius to paint in the gardening way in forming a landfcape upon a canvas, no more is required but to adjuil the figures to each other: an artift who would form a garden in Kent's manner, has an additional tafk; which is, to adjuft his figures to the feveral varieties of the field. A fingle Chap. 8. Cl.ap.2. part 4. See the place immediately above cited. |
