one, an infeparable Connection will tranffer it into the other; but as long as Superftition ufes Art like a Magician's Wand, to delude the Multitude with her fairy Creations, and Luxury allures her to rebel against Virtue, the Productions must neceffarily be monftrous; difgust every undistempered Mind; and only fuit that Incongruity from whence they sprung of Prieftcraft and Licentioufnefs.

You fee, EUPHEMIUS, how willing I am to oblige you, by hazarding to your nice Infpection the firft Sallies of a young, tho' well-meaning, Fancy. If the Effay gives AMELIA any Pleasure, I dare fay you will very foon communicate it to me, as I am convinced, from repeated Favors of this kind, that will never let any Opportunity escape of giving me even the leaft Satisfaction; much lefs will you conceal from me what, you may very well know, will afford the greateft. I am,

you

Your, &c. &c,

LET

I

LETTER IX.

To the SAME.

AM quite fick, my dear Friend, of the fplendid Impertinence, the unmeaning Glitter, the tasteless Profufion, and monftrous Enormities, which I have lately seen in a Summer's Ramble to fome of the Villas which fwarm in the Neigh bourhood of our Metropolis. You would imagine that the Owners, having retained the horrid Chimæras of a feverish Dream, had jumbled them together in a waking Frenzy. In one Place was a House built from an aukward Delineation plundered from an old Indian Screen, and decorated with all the Monsters of Afia and Africa, inhofpitably grinning at Strangers over every Door, Window, and ChimneyPiece. In another, we found an old Gothic Building encrufted with Stucco, fliced into Grecian Pilafters, with gilded Capitals; fuperbly lined with Paper disfigured all over with the fat Deities of CHINA, and the heterogeneous Animals that exist

only

only in the aërial Regions of UTOPIA. Few, very few, did we meet with that bore any relation to Proportion, or the Conveniencies and natural Emoluments of

Life. But in all these notable Distortions of Art, I perceived the poor prostituted Word TASTE, was conftantly made ufe of to express the abortive Conceptions of a diftempered Fancy. From a curfory View of thefe motley Productions of modern Refinement, you would be led to think, that the new Gentry of the City, and their Leaders the well-dreffed Mob about St. James's, were feized, the very Moment they left the Town-Air, with a Chinese Madness, and imagined a Deviation from Truth and Nature was an infallible Criterion of TASTE. But of all the fplendid Impertinencies I ever faw, nothing ever excited in me fo contemptuous an Indignation as Mucio's Palace; and yet the filly Multitude pour forth in abundant Crowds from the adjacent City, during the Summer Seafon, on a particular Day of the Week, which the indulgent Owner fets apart for that Purpose, to gaze with open-mouthed Astonishment at the

superb

fuperb Nothing of this unmeaning Structure. MUCIO's Palace ftands about fix Miles from LONDON, upon a dry barren Spot, where GOD never intended Wood should naturally grow, or Water spring: MUCIO therefore made choice of this Spot, in Preference to any other, to fhew the admiring Spectators, that Wealth could perform every thing in the Phyfical World, as his wary Ancestors had found it would do in the Moral. So to fupply what Nature in a profufe Irregularity beftows upon other Places, but had withheld from this, he planted, at an immeníe Expence, by Rule and Line, feveral pretty Walks of Elm Trees, fo engagingly like one another, that, at the first Glance, you may know them all to be of the fame Family; and obferving that Water is more naturally collected into, and preserved in a Body, in low Situations, Mucio, whose chief Aim, it seems, was to excel Nature, most artfully catched upon an Eminence, in a round Bafon turned by a pair of Compaffes, or more properly a large Rainwater Cistern of ten Acres, the imprisoned Contributions of Winter Showers, to pu

trify by Stagnation in the Summer Season. The House itself, it is true, is built with good Portland Stone, before which is ftuck on a Portico in the Corinthian Order. The Rooms within are large without Magnificence; numerous without Convenience; and fitted up with an oftentatious Splendor, without the minutest Appearance of any one real Elegance. The Furniture is even difguftingly expenfive, and ornamented into useless Incumbrance. Several daubed Copies of P. PININI'S Ruins dangle over monftrous Marble Chimney-Pieces, that look like Family Monuments in a Cathedral; and not a few fhapeless naked Pagan Deities, done by modern Artists, fprawl upon Canvas furrounded with gilt Frames, tacked upon Hangings of Gold and Silver Tiffue. fhort, the whole feems as if MUCIO had been fuffered by Heaven, to fquander away immenfe Treasures in this most ridiculous manner, to give a filent Leffon of Confolation to every Spectator, how low foever his Lot is fallen in the Vale of Life, that Nature and Propriety will thatch-covered Cottage useful,

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