endent isles and colonies,
all of which were under the same air, and partook of the same features
of landscape. In Rome, it became less perfect, because more imitative
than indigenous, and corrupted by the traveling, and conquering, and
stealing ambition of the Roman; yet still a school of architecture,
because the whole of Italy presented the same peculiarities of scene. So
with the Spanish and Moresco schools, and many others; passing over the
Gothic, which, though we hope hereafter to show it to be no exception to
the rule, involves too many complicated questions to be now brought
forward as a proof of it.

[The comparison of Egyptian architecture with delirious visions seems to
be an allusion to De Quincey's passage in "The Pains of Opium"--the last
paper in "the Confessions of an Opium-Eater"--where, after describing
Piranesi's _Dreams_, he tells how he fancied he was "buried for a
thousand years, in stone coffins, with mummies and sphinxes, in narrow
chambers at the heart of eternal pyramids," etc.]]

150. Another cause to be noticed is the peculiar independence of the
Englishman's disposition; a feeling which prompts him to suit his own
humor, rather than fall in with the prevailing cast of social sentiment,
or of natural beauty and expression; and which, therefore,--there being
much obstinate originality in his mind,--produces strange varieties of
dwelling, frequently rendered still more preposterous by his love of
display; a love universally felt in England, and often absurdly
indulged. Wealth is worshiped in France as the means of purchasing
pleasure; in Italy, as an instrument of power; in England, as the means
"of showing off." It would be a very great sacrifice indeed, in an
Englishman of the average stamp, to put his villa out of the way, where
nobody would ever see it, or think of _him_; it is his ambition to hear
every one exclaiming, "What a pretty place! whose can it be?" And he
cares very little about the peace which he has disturbed, or the repose
which he has interrupted; though, even while he thus pushes himself into
the way, he keeps an air of sulky retirement, of hedgehog independence,
about his house, which takes away any idea of sociability or good-humor,
which might otherwise have been suggested by his choice of situation.

151. But, in spite of all these unfortunate circumstances, there are
some distinctive features in our English country houses, which are well
worth a little attention. Fir