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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[July, 



taste and scientific judgment, and poetic or classic feeling for its conception ? 

 or else do we see tlie general forms of a design procured from a master of the 

 art, to be, with an ill-judged and most delusive economy, placed for their 

 completion in the hands of s me assuming journeyman of the profession, 

 with a judgment as erroneous as that which might have induced a publisher 

 to hand over the outline of a tale of the Great Magician, to be filled up by 

 some penny scribe, with all its detail of well delineated character and natural 

 expression, and historic associations and wondrous imaginings, the lights and 

 shadows of ever-varying incident, and its deep and absorbing interest. The 

 attempt would not be less absurd, and would afford just an equal prospect of 

 success. But independently of the waste of money, there is another loss, 

 which under such circumstances is entailed by the want of information to 

 which I advert.— I allude to the loss of estimation which the deluded client 

 must suffer in the opinion of better instructed persons, by the exhibition of 

 the memorial he has erected to mark his sad deficiency in judgment and in 

 taste. The edifice which he regards with admiration and displays with 

 pride, is, in reality, an object of ridicule to those who have learned to distin- 

 guish structural deformity from graceful beauty ; and the very praises which 

 he lavishes on the abortion but bear w itness to the decided ignorance of his 

 views. 



It has often been my lot, as I dare say it has been that of many who hear 

 me, to listen with a painful feeling to such notes of praise uttered by persons 

 of enlightened views on other subjects, wlien accompanied by observations 

 whicli have evinced their incapacity for discerning the grossest errors in the 

 structures they have admired, even when their vicious faultiness has been 

 pointed out. How often on such occasions, is the censure, of which they 

 cannot perceive the justness, vainly combated by such expressions as " tastes 

 differ," and " though the building may not be strictly architectural, it still is 

 handsome," he. I need not point out to you the total incorrectness of such 

 observations. It is only necessary to say tliat they evince, as they proceed 

 from, total ignorance of the subject to which they refer. A little study of 

 the principles of architectural composition would have taught those who use 

 them that no design can be beautiful which is in violation of harmony, or of 

 proportion, or of fitness— that is, accordance with and adaptation to the cha- 

 racter which it assumes ; and although it is true that "■ tastes may differ," 

 even amongst correct judges of architectural propriety, one preferring per- 

 haps the harmonious symmetry and chaste solemnity of a Grecian temple ; 

 and another the picturesque forms of a Norman c;istle or a Tudor mansion ; 

 still there can be no difference of taste, properly speaking, as to what is really 

 excellent and what is totally erroneous in design ; unless, indeed, the term 

 "taste' can be applied to such a perverted judgment as would prefer the 

 cherubims of a country tomb-stone to the sculptures of a Phidias or a Lysip- 

 pus, or the flaunting colours of a signboard daub to the magic creations of a 

 Titian or a Claude. If, from the considerations to which I have directed 

 your attention, it appears clearly how deeply interested are the unprofes- 

 sional public in acquiring some correct knowledge of architectural design, for 

 the perception of its merits, or for the detection of its faults ; the instructed 

 artist is equally interested in the general cultivation of such knowledge, as in 

 its diffusion will be found his surest safeguard against the injurious encroach- 

 ments of ignorance and pretension. It will, indeed, be readily supposed, and 

 experience has proved that those who, by studying the principles of architec- 

 ture, have been taught to judge of it aright, who are thus aware of the extent 

 of information, the laborious attention, and the continued practice required 

 to qualify the skilful architect ; and still more, the historical research, the 

 poetic associations, the refinement of feeling, and the creative fancy, chas- 

 tened by taste derived from the purest sources, which must combine to form 

 a master of the art, have ever been found the warmest patrons of ifs profes- 

 sors, and the most ready and anxious to cheer the labours and to reward the 

 merits which they have learned truly to comprehend, 



. It is not, certaiidy, to be assumed that an attention to the study of archi- 

 tecture, whether more or leas extended, will supply the want of individual 

 talent, or, in its exercise, produce a correct taste for the beautiful in design, 

 where nature has denied to the student its perception ; but, at least, it will 

 oppose a barrier to the gross violation of rule and order in structural compo- 

 sition. It will be sufficient to prevent the sanctioning of what is incongruous 

 or inharmonious in its eflects ; it will tend to the discouraging of assumed 

 ignorance ; and, by directing the all-powerful influence of high example and 

 generous sympathy in aid of a most worthy cause, it will promote the deve- 

 lopment of native talent ; and, while it elevates the intellectual character of 

 the country, it will spread with a refinement of feeling and of pursuit an in- 

 crease of civilization and of happiness amongst her people — 



Ingenuas didic sse fidellter Artes, 



Emollit mores, nee sinit esse feros — 

 Let us turn our eyes on Greece and Ituly, and mark the light which is shed 

 from their glorious ruins in illustration of the position I maintain. There 

 the arts, and architecture, above the rest, held a distinguished place, and 

 marked with their beautiful memorials each advancing step of national im- 

 provement. Those were no unhonoured artists who raised or restored the 

 Parthenon, or gave to Athens the glories of the Erechtheum and the Pro 



pylasa. There was no want of a people's sympathy for the skill that had 

 shone in Rome's temples and triumphal arches. Those nations have fallen, 

 " fallen from their high estate." " Time and the barbarians" have both done 

 their work ; and in later days, the hand of Moslem rudeness has driven the 

 genius of architecture from the land of her adoption and her glory. But in 

 Italy she still holds an honoured place ; and amidst the many political 

 errors and changes which she has there witnessed, she has continued to re- 

 ceive that votive homage at her shrine, which attests how- highly she has 

 been and is still regarded as the object of a people's respect and of their love. 

 Much of this enthusiastic feeling of the Italian is, perhaps, attributable to 

 the pride of national reminiscences associated with the architectural monu- 

 ments of their country's greatness — much of it, perhaps, to the ardent tem- 

 perament of the people, which renders them peculiarly susceptible of the im- 

 pressions which the beautiful and classic examples around them are calculated 

 to produce. 



From whatever cause arising, it is certain that in the midst ot political 

 faults, a strong feeling in favour of the fine arts has pervaded the country, 

 influencing at once the rulers and the people ; establishing schools for the 

 cultivation of architecture, of painting, and of sculpture, and encouraging 

 with the noblest rewards and honours the aspirants to professional distinc- 

 tion. The result is such as might be expected. If the ancient architectural 

 glories of Italy are not, under her depression, equalled by her modern pro- 

 ductions, they are not, at last in many instances, disgraced by the deformi- 

 ties of ignorant pretension; while whenever an opportunity has been afforded 

 for the exercise of talent, it has been witnessed in the production of chaste 

 and classic structures — in taste, if not in grandeur, worthy to succeed those 

 splendid monuments which, even in their ruin, testify '• the eternal city" to 

 have been once in arts as well as in arras the mistress of the world. There 

 was no indication of degeneracy in the idea of elevating the proudest temple 

 of ancient Rome to an aerial position, or in the professional skill and scientific 

 attainments which would have enabled Michael Angelo to carry that sublime 

 conception into effect had it been adopted. That iu Britain a love for archi- 

 tecture, with a perception of what is correct and beautiful in design, has not 

 prevailed to an equal extent, is the result of circumstances both natural and 

 adventitious. The reasoning character of the people, which determined their 

 pursuits and actions less by sentiment than by calculation, and which is en- 

 hanced by their essentially commercial habits, is, itself, unfavourable to the 

 appreciation of an art in which practice, feeling, and imagination must com- 

 bine with science to produce a perfect work. In the course of educa tion, too, 

 adopted in the universities, directed almost solely to the consideration of 

 classical literature and of abstract science, and which, in its exclusiveness, is, 

 perhaps, more the result of habit and of prejudice than is admitted, the study 

 of architecture, as a branch of mental cultivation, is not included— and in 

 after life, the occupations of political excitement, and the pursuits of ambi- 

 tion or of tame, and the studies which apply to them, leave to those of elevated 

 rank but little time, and supply to them but little inducement for considering 

 a subject in which they have not learned to feel a previous interest. How- 

 ever, notwithstanding these opposing circumstances, there are, happily, many 

 among the educated and influential classes in Britain who have studied our 

 art, as well from principle as from taste, and who, from the associations con- 

 nected with the proud baronial castles, and the graceful ministers, the Kag- 

 land and the Melrose ruins of their own historic land, or from the monu- 

 ments of classic elegance with which they have, in foreign travel, become 

 familiar, have learned to appreciate a science which cannot be truly valued 

 but as it is both felt and understood. This advance in " the march of mind" 

 is evinced not less in the chaste and beautiful design of many modern struc- 

 tures, than in the endowment of schools and in the establishing of galleries 

 for the arts ; a contribution of wealth to a national property, of which Great 

 Britian may be most justly proud. It is also witnessed in the victory of good 

 feeling and taste over unworthy prejudice in the sympathy of high birth and 

 influence with professional talent, and in their association for an object of 

 reciprocal interest, whereby the noblest are seen enrolled as acting members 

 of British Institutes of art, which they adorn not less by their scientific and 

 tasteful acquirements, than by the lustre of their station and their name. It 

 was with the hope of promoting in this country a similar appreciation of the 

 liberal arts, by raising that which we cultivate from its unmerited depression, 

 that first was established the Institute over which I have the honour profes- 

 sionally, to preside ; and in furtherance of this object I conceived the idea of 

 delivering a course of elementary lectures which should principally tend to 

 give to unprofessional persons some general information as to architectural de- 

 sign and the principles which it includes. If by such efforts as this, continued, 

 and, no doubt, improved upon by others, there shall, at length, be excited in 

 the public mind a decided interest in this subject, it will be a source of most 

 legitimate congratulation, in which the members of this institute will parti- 

 cipate with every true lover of his country or of the arts ; fur sure I am that 

 the period which witnesses the awakening of such a feeling amongst us, will 

 be a happy era as well for the social improvement of Ireland as for the ad- 

 vancement of a profession in which I have learned to centre my attachment 

 _ and ray pride. 



