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SKETCHES BY A PRACTISING ARCHITECT. 

 No. V. 



" I am content to be a man of valor — I don *t care to show it." — 



The Wife. 



If the preceding sketches have had any tendency 

 to intimidate a young aspirant to the honours of 

 practical architecture, they may yet leave it to be 

 inferred, that the mere theory of architecture is 

 pleasing enough. It is only he, who ventures among 

 the shoals of palpable brick and mortar, that can 

 speak as to the terrors of the architectural " deep." 

 There he may, no doubt, meet with calm seas or 

 propitious gales ; leaving him either to luxuriate in 

 the peaceful contemplation of Art's beautiful expanse, 

 or wafting his professional barque from the native 

 cliffs of his own imagination to the happy shores of 

 approving patronage. It may possibly happen, that 

 his career will be as gently prosperous as that of a 

 toy frigate on Virginia water ; but the chances are, 

 that it may include all the terrors of an Indiaman 

 on the Atlantic ; that his vessel may be driven to 

 and fro by the contrary and ever-shifting winds of 

 caprice, shattered among the breakers of perplexity ; 

 or, if he escape from some of these, he may only be 

 preserved from the remainder by the conclusive 

 measure of a drop from the scaifold. But, O ! the 

 pleasures of amateurship ! — of turning over " Stew- 

 art's Athens," and ^' Degodetz Rome," " Denon's 

 Egypt," and ^' Britton's' Cathedrals ! " O ! the 

 dehght of covering sheets of elephant with mighty 

 combinations of the magnificent individualities of 

 ancient Art ! The charm of never hearing those 

 thundering philippics of censure, which would un- 

 doubtedly follow their realization in these days of 

 utilitarianism. The sweets of exciting the admiration 

 of private friends by the vastness of our ideas, instead 

 of arousing the enmity of the public press, by their 

 inapplicability to modern purposes. The otium cum 

 dignitate of building cathedrals, palaces, and niauso- 

 VOL. V. — 1835. B 



