A1 msisi en las ten laer mate to produce a new trie. The der vici nakes pillars deve mer rafias suggesed a plan có producing a tendance of port a portcs Tries aan, i have made te e ad cancer f However the Vox of is enga may be, the present caracter of astimeture is regularity; thong of a landscape, vier it is improperly made iz muze, i priguezj. Newe indeed artimur, a vela cal fe various art are touched in the future of houses, ose is vici e nos ámlar x is

but with the deng da dey may be entreiv sub

servient to e

If, therefore, we can by general reasoning, account better for the beauty of all other parts of architecture that are less marked by particular manner, than are a Corinthian or Ionic capital, and if we cannot assign a reason why, in these, some small variation should not take place; how shall we keep quite clear of the imputation of servility in our imitation of the Greeks and Romans? To this I answer, that the case is analogous to that of the British constitution. Alteration can only be desirable in the slightest degree; for great and distant effects, we may be satisfied by general principles. It is better to acquiesce in existing customs, than to produce monstrosity; provided that we at the same time render justice to philosophy, by supposing the present state of things variable, and that we make a general, possible, and voluntary improvement, our secret, and unaffected aim. Yet though a sort of manner will probably remain, and may even serve to check caprice, provided it be understood as variable, and that it be made to accord with new conceptions of beauty; it is

worthy of rational creatures rather to imitate the excellences, than the peculiarities of the ancients. I have perused the following observations favourable to this notion, in the interesting publication of Mr. Jackson of Exeter, called the Four Ages.“Architecture will not be slavishly held in Doric, "Ionic, and Corinthian bonds, but formed on such "aliquot parts as correct judgment, joined with "elegant taste, shall find most proper." P. 93. Also,

"To the circle, or portions of it, may be re"ferred the general forms in the Roman and Saxon "architecture. From acute arches, or acute angles, σε may be derived the general forms of Gothic ar"chitecture." P. 69.

If this improvement may be gradually made, it should be undertaken only by an architect of the genius of Mr. James Wyatt; but I am disposed to think that the author's taste will not oblige him to regret, that practice in architecture has been ever left to itself. Like the English constitution, this art may be thought likely to be a sufferer

by any hasty and systematic attempts to improve

it.

P. 63. 1. 5. In a gay and conversible company, there is nothing either in manner or in phrase that particularly attracts the attention. Let us suppose two persons to retire from such a company, on account of business which they are desirous of discoursing upon. They both immediately recall their thoughts from a variety of indifferent subjects, and fix them exclusively upon one. Any friend who should then accompany and overhear them, would resemble a frequenter of the theatres, who, after seeing half a comedy at one house, goes to see half a tragedy at the other, and having been employed in contemplating manners, goes where he can contemplate serious action. They employ now a more emphatic manner, in discoursing of that which separately interests them; and, if they are men of education, they express themselves, in order to enforce their meaning, in an eloquent and scholarly way, above the pitch of common conversation. The regular emphasis that they use, and

the choice language with which they speak, seem to me to be the foundation of metre and poetical diction in tragedy.

The marked cadence, the ictus of verse, seems to be a warning given by the poet, that he does not intend that we should fix our minds upon inferior objects in the course of the representation, but should wait for something striking which is finally to appear. Lillo will furnish an instance of this in his two plays of George Barnwell and the Fatal Curiosity; the former of which affects our feelings too strongly, by not diverting our attention from manners. The alloy of metre tempers, perhaps, in a due degree, the dolorous sentiments of the Fatal Curiosity. Pastoral poetry, Pastoral poetry, it is true, has recourse to metre, and yet aims at representing manners full as much as action; but as it has a view beyond a simple representation of them, and wishes to create an enthusiastic admiration of the country, it is properly heightened by the melody of versification. As to any abstract reasoning with respect to the equal fitness of prose for comedy and tragedy,