60 SKETCHES BY A PRACTISING ARCHITECT. 



Oh ! say not so. The enforcement of such a law 

 would leave us nothing to laugh at. The constant 

 contemplation of Parthenons and York Minsters 

 would make us particular and rigid in our tastes. 

 We should all stiffen into Cari/atides, or sit " like 

 our grandsires, cut in alabaster." 



At all events — if these drolleries are found to be 

 bad in principle, let not the operative party be 

 attacked. If the carpenter be allowed opportunities 

 for exercising the art of design, as well as that of 

 joinery, he only does as most of us would do in the 

 same situation. As long as he, with a very little 

 taste, has yet more than his employer, can we wonder 

 at the patronage he receives ? While the members 

 of our Universities remain ignorant of the common 

 principles of Art, can we be surprised at the thriving 

 condition of quackery ? It is not the cunning of the 

 carpenter, but the apathy of the carpentered that is 

 culpable. While there are no professors at Oxford 

 and Cambridge, we must expect the assumption of 

 professorship m the builder's shop. 



I am curious to know the professed purpose of 

 the Architectural Society just established in Exeter 

 Hall. To say the least, it must be desirable as a 

 conversazione ; agreeable and instructive to real pro- 

 fessors: but, if its members be wholly professional, 

 its good effects will be limited. Nothing in the least 

 depreciatory is intended to it, as a society per se ; 

 but, as far as the great cause of Art is concerned, we 

 want — not a congregation of architects, but an archi- 

 tect with a congregation. Perhaps in a forthcoming 

 number of the Magazine of the Fine Arts, we shall 

 be informed as to its constitution : whether it is to 

 be regarded, as " a lodge in some vast wilderness," 

 wherein we seek for that true appreciation, which 

 the barren world around has failed to afford : or 

 whether we are to support it as the centre of an 

 expansive system, which is to be governed by its 

 attraction, and illumined by its radiance. 



The political importance of this kingdom has flour- 

 ished — not in the peculiar talents of our statesmen 



