There is no circumstance in which bad taste is so conspicuous, as in the misuse of ornaments and decorations; an observation equally applicable to all the polite arts, and not less true with respect to eloquence, poetry, music, and painting, than to architecture and gardening. Thus, for instance, a rural scene may be delightful without any building or work of art, yet, if judiciously embellished by artificial objects in character with the scene, the landscape will be more perfect; on the contrary, if encumbered by buildings in a bad taste, or crowded by such as are too large, too small, or in any respect inapplicable, however correct they may be as works of art, the scene will be injured, and thus a thatched hovel may be deemed an ornament, where a Corinthian temple would be misplaced, or vice versa.
