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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Jan, 13, 



" Yoii then whose jiulgment the right course would steer, 



Know well each ancients' proper character ; 



His tabic, siibjecls, scope in ev'ry page, 



Religion, country, genius of his age." 

 " Tlience form your judgment, thence your maxims bring, 



And trace the Muses upwards to their spring." 

 " When first young Maro in his boundless mind, 



A work to outlast immortal Rome design'd. 



Perhaps be seem'd above the city's law , 



And but from nature's fountains seem'd to draw : 



15ut when t' examine ev'ry part he came. 



Nature and Homer, were, he found, the same ; 



Couvinc'd, amaz'd, he checks the bold design, S 



And rules as strict his lalwur'd work confine, >- 



As if the Stagirite o'er-look'd each line. J 



Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem. 



To copy Nature, is to copy tliem." 



By literature then, the student will discover the consistency of great prin- 

 ciples in art, and the conformity evinced by all the best authorities, whilst he 

 wdl detect the fallacies of many pretenders, and the filchings and borr'owings 

 of ambitious authors. 



In my last course, I invited you to consider this matter attentively, and, 

 above all, I enjoined you to avail yourselves of e»ery opportunity of seeking 

 the best works, and of recording your opinion of them, always under the con- 

 viction that success must depend upon yourselvae. I have referred to those 

 preceding lectures : 1st. Because ihey apply only to the practice of the fine 

 arts as they present themselves to the eye and the understanding, in which 

 department these studies are essential. 2nd. Because the mathematical 

 principles of an art form but a part of our consideration, and 3rd. Because 

 the limitation of these lectures prevents our going over those grounds again, 

 and requires that we should take a new Hne every year to fill up the measure 

 of their utility. But I must remind you that though the lectures of this 

 institution are unavoidably limited, that deficiency is greatly diminished by 

 the liberality of other institutions. I refer more particularly to the London 

 University and King's College, where the accomplished Professors give lec- 

 tures almost weekly upon all the arts and sciences. You must be led to 

 practice these arts before experience can be gained. Genius is a gift ; and 

 invention, nature only can bestow on us ; but, be it remembered, that taste is 

 the offspring of learning and a just education, and ia always more or less 

 within our power. 



Let us now consider for a moment the present state of our art, and what 

 is going on in this country. The actual state of architectural taste in Europe 

 is remarkable. Since the revival of learning in tlie 15th century, the supre- 

 macy of Greece and Rome was readily admitted. Dryden and Pope had pro- 

 mulgated those laws which weie regarded as the standard of good taste, all 

 seemed settled, and no one ventured to doubt the prevailing sentiments, and 

 the pursuit of taste in the best circles had acquired the utmost popularity. 

 This was sustained by the writers of the middle and last century, but gradu- 

 ally lost its ascendancy before the great convulsions and political struggles 

 which disturbed the empire at the end of the last century. Universal seep- 

 ticism was raised upon all heretofore received doctrines ; the test of reason 

 was applied to every pursuit, and some artists whose critical works have had 

 an effect upon our art, applied the doctrines of Bentham and the utihtarians. 

 M. Duront, a respectable lecturer for many years at the Polytechnic Institu. 

 tion at Paris, refers all the problems of architecture to utility. He says 

 there are no absurd rules of proportion that can be generally applied, because 

 everv building must differ in its wants; all features of which the use is not 

 apparent, he proscribes. He abandons the base of a column as superfluous, 

 when a column is budt upon a column ; for says he " has it not been proved 

 that the base is not necessary for strength ; " he proscribes all ornament in 

 the structure, and recommends nothing that is not required to produce con- 

 venience, solidity, salubrity, regularity, and simplicity. Such were the doc- 

 trines that affected our art, as well as the political and social world during 

 thote years, which brought us to that startling simphcity from which we have 

 now happily revolted. Heresies and latitudiuarian views are as dangerous 

 as the utilitarian doctrines. The student doubts if there be any fixed prin- 

 ciples, and sighs for something which may satisfy that inborn desire of the 

 mind fur some standard of excellence to which he may refer. 



It was extremely natural, on the recovery of Europe from the desolation 

 of war in 1814, that we should deplore our sad departure from the rides of 

 the fine arts, which were formerly in general acceptation. Long unused to 

 that refined criticism, which experience can only arrive at, no wonder that 

 we should fail to distinguish the good from the bad in former models, and 

 should seize all that was presented to us. Like the youthful appetite, which 

 swallows voraciously whatever has the semblance of nourishment, the artistic 

 mind of Europe, during the last 30 years, has been wholly occupied in di- 

 gesting those materials, and there is scarcely a school which has not been 

 canvassed, criticised, and reproduced. This is on the wane, and Europe's 

 mind is bent on asserting its own right to think and act for itself. To study 

 departed excellence too intimately only extinguishes natural genius, and we 

 become copyists, sinking under the errors of those we copy. We become man- 

 nerists instead of originalists. If there be no originality there can be no 

 improvement ; if no deviation from existing models, there can he no progres- 

 sion : whilst, to be original, is to escape from bondage, and at least to ac- 

 quire the possibility of being superior. To these reflections may follow the 

 inquiry, " But if we cease to follow existing models, how shall we find that 

 txceediiis skill wbicb we do find.''! Tiu3 >s 3 question I cannot pretend to 



answer, other than by saying that when you have a work to invent, you should 

 put away all former notions ; be animated only by the wants and require- 

 ments of the building, the materials to be procured, and the genus loci. Then 

 let your invention proceed upon a natural view of these elements, without 

 servility to any existing model. 



Pedantry and ignorance are the two great enemies to the progress of our 

 work. The pedantry of this age in architecture, arises from a small idea of 

 the importance of the art itself. It has not been deemed of that essential 

 importance to the character of the state, in which it was formerly held. Be- 

 fore the all-engrossing importance of war, or other vast operations affecting 

 society, pedantry takes flight. 



We must qualify ourselves for our profession by study and experience. 

 These courses once gone through, we must exercise our own genius. The 

 great captain of our day has no doubt studied every military tactic from Se- 

 sostris to Vauban, but he never for a moment thought of resorting to any 

 of those tactics in the achievement of his glorious victories; his only thought 

 was how to suit his means to the necessity, his materials to the case, and the 

 l/mus loci — and then his operations proceeded. 



On his side, your Professor has felt all the importance of his duty, in the 

 deep conviction that, however humble the seed he may sow in good soil, it 

 may grow into a great tree, whose branches may extend to distant lands. He 

 must bear in mind that he is acting amongst the richest and most powerful 

 people in the world; that England's sons cover not only this land, but the 

 continents of America and Asia, with their works, which do homage to the 

 superior education and skill of Britain. Often we may see the most magni- 

 ficent works in those countries raised from some office in this metropohs — 

 some individual who may have derived his instruction from Sir John Soane 

 or Peter Nicholson, and have carried his experience, and the superior learn- 

 ing of this country, into the presence of the autocrats and potentates of 

 foreign countries ; thus verifying the words of the prophet, " Seest thou a 

 man who delighteth in business, he shall stand before kings." England, in- 

 deed, is like a great hive, from which the bees swarm, and carry honey into 

 other lands. Two remarkable instances occur to me of this fact. Mr. La- 

 drone, a pupil of my father's, sent me, some years ago, the plans of the 

 capitol of Washington, which was built by him. M. Montferron, at that time 

 a young man of no repute in Paris, is now architect to the Emperor of Rus- 

 sia, and is engaged in building the church of St. Isaac. This is a magnificent 

 structure ; the section of the portico is like St. Paul's, but it is made of iron, 

 and is contracted for by Mr. Baird. 



Your Professor, then, considering the great importance of his duties in 

 this respect, must omit nothing which his own, or the experience of others, 

 has taught him. To interest you, therefore, he endeavours to acquaint him- 

 self with the movements in those nations which are before us in the fine 

 arts. It is on this account that he visited our neighbours in Paris last year, 

 and those on the Rhine this year, because, with the nature of their habits, 

 they are more addicted to follow the tine arts than ourselves. With the 

 blessing of peace greater public works have been accomplished there than 

 here, and there the most liberal patronage is bestowed upon all the followers 

 of the tine arts, whUst this country laljuurs under the incubus of a national 

 debt. 



I purpose, in the present course, to direct your attention to the fashionable 

 architecture of the day, and to refer to the much discussed subject of church 

 budding. These fashionable buildings in a country arise from many remote 

 causes, which it is difficidt to recognize — such as the moral condition of the 

 people, their habits and government, the poetical vein of thought which 

 prevails, politics, religion, iSic. And the fashions change greatly with the 

 age. When 1 first entered the profession, the Egyptian architecture was 

 esteemed the most beautiful. We are not so susceptible of mode here, as 

 our Gallic neighbours ; but in France there was not a chimney of that day 

 that was not covered with hieroglyphics, or shaped like a mummy. After 

 that the Indian architecture prevailed, and George IV. adopted it in his pa- 

 viUon at Brighton. And so on. 



Such fashions will ever prevail, and certain deference must be paid to 

 them, hut in this fashion, as in dress, the weakest will take the extremes, 

 whilst the prudent will only show a certahi degree of conformity to it. I 

 would suggest to the students that it is always necessary to refer to what 

 may be called the tributary streams of an, for aid and assistance — especially 

 to our Universities. The example of the accomplished Master of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, has been followed by a society not inferior in zeal, and 

 it has taken the science of church building under its especial protection, on 

 which subject it promulgates laws from head-quarters with the greatest con- 

 fidence ; and we can have no stronger proof of the favour in which our art is 

 held, than the success which has marked the progress of the Camden Society. 

 These gentlemen have limited their views to one style of architecture, and 

 admit none other worthy to be used in a Christian church. They shut out 

 all the rest of the world from their privileges, and adopt the architecture of 

 the 13th century as the best adapted to this holy subject of church building. 

 We admire the singleness of these gentlemen, so far as it goes, and shall 

 endeavour to revive this subject in order to give a fair view of the matter, but 

 not for the purpose of retahating on those gentlemen terms which have already 

 driven from the society the Bishop of London, the Bishop of Armagh, Pro- 

 fessor Willis, Professor Sedgwick, the Master of Trinity, and others; and the 

 students will find in this renunciation of the doctrines of the Camden Societ}', 

 the danger of relying on such authority. 



