872 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



or artistic, and thus has it thriven most lustily in the colonies, 

 where we have so many examples of large and sometimes 

 convenient buildings dressed out by the builder with various 

 apphed ornaments culled from some architectural authority. 

 These strictures most particularly apply to the most populous 

 class of buildings — those for domestic purposes — where the 

 construction of by far the greater majority is entirely 

 entrusted to men almost totally devoid of even moderately 

 good taste. 



The practice of architecture cannot, in any form, be 

 attempted until the science of building is thoroughly mastered ; 

 this science includes a thorough knowledge of the proper 

 combination of various materials so effected as to cause con- 

 venience, while so calculated as to remain for an indefinite 

 period in statu quo and impervious to the local action of the 

 various natural forces. 



In fine building is the practice of the science of statics, 

 and a knowledge of it is essential to the proper evolution of 

 design in architecture ; and thus in the inception of design 

 this is the only relation that exists between building and 

 architecture. 



As to architecture itself, I feel that I cannot do better 

 than condense the definitions of it we have received from 

 Ruskin and Viollet-le-duc. In the first of the " Lamps of 

 Architecture," that of " Sacrifice," Architecture is defined 

 as " The Art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised 

 by man for whatever uses, that the sight of them contributes 

 to his mental health, power, and pleasure ;" while Viollet-le- 

 duc, in his incomparable lectures, describes it as " Something- 

 more than the art of collecting and combining materials in 

 a substantial and convenient form, and, as the sister of music 

 and poetry, bound to give a wide scope to imagination, to 

 inspiration, to taste, and bound to subordinate even the 

 material laws involved to that divine afflatus which breathes 

 upon the musician and the poet." To these two men, who, of 

 all modern writers, I may safely affirm knew best the subject 

 on which they wrote, architecture ranks with the highest 

 and finest of arts. The very practice of it is ennobhng and, 

 if earnestly attempted, highly laborious, — success is only 

 obtained after much study and exclusive attention, — and in 

 its highest forms must make great demands upon the moral 

 rectitude and probity of the artist. 



The architect in his work suffers from a great disadvantage 

 in having to appeal to the builder before it is possible to effect 



