A point of some importance in the internal decoration of palatial
houses, viz. the introduction of "ornaments of the age of Louis XIV."
is now canvassing among connoisseurs, or rather among those who direct
the public taste. Some of our readers are probably aware that the
mansion built for the late Duke of York, and Crockford's Club-house,
are embellished in this style, which, to say the best, is gorgeous and
expensive, without displaying good taste. We ought to leave such
matters to the classical Mr. T. Hope, who has written a folio volume
on "Household Furniture and Internal Decorations;" or the Carvers,
Gilders, and Cabinet-Makers' Societies might sit in council on the
subject. The question is interesting to all lovers of the fine arts,
and to men of taste generally.
* * * * *
Is there any thing in this?
"It were no preposterous conceit to affirm, that nature typifies in
each individual man the several offices and orders which our
commonwealth distributes to the several ranks and functionaries of the
state. There are the Operative Energies, Talents, Passions, Appetites,
good servants all, but bad masters, useful citizens, always to be
controlled, but never oppressed, and most effective when they are
neither pampered nor starved. There, too, is the Executive Will;
Prudence, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Self-love, minister for the
Home Department; Observation, Secretary of Foreign Affairs; Poetry,
over the Woods and Forests; Lord Keeper Conscience, a sage,
scrupulous, hesitating, head-shaking, hair-splitting personage, whose
decisions are most just, but too slow to be useful, and who is the
readier to weep for what is done, than to direct what should be done;
Wit, Manager of the House of Commons, a flashy, either-sided
gentleman, who piques himself on never being out; and Self-Denial,
always eager to vacate his seat and accept the Chiltern
Hundreds."--_Blackwood's Mag._
* * * * *