106 SKETCHES BY A PRACTISING ARCHITECT. 



wrongs will, of course, afflict him, — though, indeed, it 

 were well he should be prepared even for these, — for 

 the architect comes into more decided collision with 

 the vulgar many, ( I do not speak of the poorer and 

 more uneducated classes,) than any other follower of 

 the Fine Arts. It argues not any inviduous and vitu- 

 perative spirit in individuals to say, that he is to be 

 bulbed by committees, ridiculed by the press, and cen- 

 sured even«by men of taste. The first will destroy the 

 original simphcity of his plans ; the second will laugh 

 at him for not maintaining it ; and the third (ignorant 

 of all preventive and compulsory circumstances) will 

 find him guilty of professional error, wherever he has 

 been goaded into sorrovnng obedience. The history 

 of Sir Christopher Wren is a sufficient evidence to all 

 this. Few of us, however, can suffer wrongs so per- 

 plexing as his ; for few can pretend to talents so me- 

 riting universal admiration — to disinterested zeal so 

 deserving of reward— to moral worth, so eloquent in 

 appeals to our love ! See his life as detailed in the 

 " Library of Useful Knowledge," that you may the 

 more immediately estimate the caution — "put not 

 your ti*ust in princes." 



Again, I must declare against any accusation of bit- 

 terness on my part, or of wanton unkindness on the 

 Eart of patronage. It is merely a duty to warn the 

 eedless aspirant of those " man traps and spring guns" 

 which Queen Mab and mischievous Puck have set in 

 the " premises" of architectural practise. The times 

 may come when he will have less to fear ; when sym- 

 pathy shall be pervading and good taste general ; but, 

 if human nature be " not critical " she is "nothing." 

 Let each man in his individual calhng do his best to 

 enHghten the public, so as to render it critically just 

 in its feelings and expressions : but let him also during 

 the work of reformation quietly " pocket those wrongs 

 which his breeches best may carry." 



