BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 875 



the building with the idea of detecting false treatment of 

 material, and he can do nothing but good if he vehemently 

 condemns, for instance, the effects produced by the coating of 

 an iron girder with cement in imitation of a continuous stone ; 

 the superficial imitation of one material by a cheaper sub- 

 stitute ; any form of constructive untruth ; the painting or 

 coloring to imitate valuable materials or excessive labour. 

 Secondly, the exterior elevation should in some part explain 

 the interior accommodation ; failing this the architectural 

 treatment must necessarily be weak. Thirdly, those parts 

 that have of necessity to carry greater weight must by their 

 mass indicate power. Fourthly, the design as a whole must 

 indicate some differential ratio from base to finial, and be 

 capable of some expressive translation to the most casual 

 observer. Fifthly, he must admit that the building is composed 

 primarily of various floor spaces superimposed upon one 

 another, supported by wall veils pierced to effect entrance, 

 light, and ventilation, — the whole having some logical associa- 

 tion with the essential purpose for which the building was 

 originally intended. And finally, let him constantly repeat to 

 himself Pugin's antithesis, which states that architecture 

 consists in the ornamentation of construction, not the con- 

 struction of ornament. 



By these methods only can we acquire anything like good 

 taste ; for, as a French writer on architecture says, " What 

 w^e call taste is but an involuntary process of reasoning whose 

 steps elude our observation." 



Acquiring taste is nothing else than familiarizing ourselves 

 Avith the good and the beautiful, and is in no wise associated 

 with what we may be pleased to respect as of historical or 

 archaeological value. 



It has ever been the merit of ancient architecture to be 

 almost exclusively the true reflex of ancient manners, customs, 

 and requirements ; and it is because of this that we are so 

 strongly disposed to respect all edifices of former centuries, 

 even if their architectural value be somewhat obscured by 

 barbaric effect. It therefore behoves us to carefully separate 

 w^hat is of historical and what is of architectural value among 

 the edifices that remain to us in the old world. And it is as 

 essential that we should exercise the principles of criticism I 

 have just explained in observing ancient as well as modern 

 examples ; for we can never find any reasonable justification 

 for joining in hysterical admiration of ancient examples because 

 they are ancient. The beauties of classic or mediaeval Gothic 



