62 PRINCIPLES OF SYNTHESIS. 



The superficial observer, uninstructed in the synthetical 

 principles of architecture, may take most accurate measure- 

 ments of each of those timbers, and may give most correct 

 descriptions of their shapes, abstract qualities, etc., ju-st as 

 science, as ordinarily pursued, gives accurate descriptions of 

 abstract facts which constitute the timbers of the great temple 

 of Nature. Such an observer, however, may not be able to 

 discover any intended connection between many of those 

 timbers ; may be able to form little or no idea of the form, 

 proportions, or correlative parts of the building which they 

 would constitute, if all put together, and may even doubt that 

 they were ever all intended to go together in any definite 

 form ; and that science which merely analyzes, but does not 

 synthesyze, experiences much the same difficulty in viewing 

 the timbers of the temple of Nature. But suppose, now, that 

 a skillful architect comes on the ground : he views those ap- 

 parently heterogeneous timbers, not only analytically (or in 

 isolated detail), but also synthetically, or in their relations to 

 each other ; and, by the observance of simple rules, he pro- 

 ceeds without any paring or forcing perhaps without even 

 the "noise of the hammer" to erect a magnificent and 

 glorious temple, in which there is a place for every timber, 

 from greatest to smallest, and a timber for every place which 

 requires one. Then even the previous superficial and merely 

 analytical observer of the timbers will know, if he surveys 

 the edifice, that those timbers were intended to go together 

 precisely in the relations in which he now finds them ; and 

 that the rule or theory by which they are brought together, 

 is true. 



Suppose the observer noticed, however, that in the erection 

 of the building, some of the timbers were a little pared, 

 or forced, or warped, in order to make them join with 



