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case the line of the eaves or the parapet of the gutter forms a horizontal line. 

 Now a horizontal line cutting the sky is always a somewhat distressing form ; 

 except in the case of the sea horizon, where the infinite delicacy of the ruling, 

 and the immensity of the object, enwrap the feelings and overawe every subor- 

 dinate sense of pleasure. The horizontal line of the parapet is, however, bear- 

 able without offence where it is natural and consistent with the whole idea of 

 the building. But I see frequently in all our towns, a gable turned to the 

 street, and a large dead wall of scantling and boards built up to conceal it. A 

 deliberate and wilful determination to hide the more beautiful form by the 

 less beautiful; — false in construction, for it weakens the house materially by 

 exposing a needless surface to the wind ; false in economy, for it costs money 

 without increasing accommodation ; utterly false in Art, for it is a miserable 

 sham in every aspect. What then is it for 1 It is to gratify a false and 

 ignoble vanity. It is to make the house look bigger than it is. I stand 

 opposite such a building, and it seems to say to me, " Now, look at me. You 

 see I am a good substantial two-storied tenement, with an upper storey about 

 ten feet high, and a comfortable upper room with a window in the middle of 

 the wall ; — a building of which my architect and owner may well be proud." 

 I reply, " Friend house, you are a complete humbug. That square front of 

 yours is for the most part exposed to the blasts of heaven, behind as well as in 

 front. You are in a great measure not a hoiise, but a signboard, a hoarding 

 stuck up in the air. That square window is not in the middle of the wall of a large 

 and comfortable chamber, but of a wretched garret, and has been with difficulty 

 squeezed in between, the sloping rafters. You are not a two-storied house, but 

 a cottage with one floor and a cockloft ; and as a work of art, you are everything 

 that is odious and contemptible." 



The one class of buildings which most awaken my feeling of the beautiful, 

 and they are now very rare, are those small unpretending tenements which 

 were built by the early colonists ; some of them not ungraceful in their pro- 

 portions ; all of them possessing the beauty of simplicity and truth, devoid of 

 vulgar pretension, tawdry vanity, and inappropriate ornament. 



And I cannot but take this opportunity of earnestly impressing rrpon you 

 the great responsibility which rests upon the Government of every country, to 

 erect public buildings which shall elevate and educate, instead of depraving 

 the public taste. If a Government represents, as it should do, whatever there 

 is of worth and nobility in the nation ; if it be, as it ought to be, an imperso- 

 nation of the strength and wisdom, the knowledge and the feeling of the 

 people ; so ought it, in the public works which it undertakes, to reflect and 

 embody the great qualities of which it is the representative and depository. 

 But besides this, it should ever bear in mind that the external symbols of 

 power are not the expression of a love of pompous or idle pageantry, but arise 

 out of the consciousness, that human nature requires that power must ever 

 present itself to the public in the habiliments which may remind men of the 

 respect and homage which are its due. It is not power in palaces which we 

 have to dread in these countries and in this age : it is power in the tavern and 

 the hovel ; and I cannot but tremble for the life of authority which a nation 

 is content to deprive of the external symbols of respect. 



Gentlemen, I conclude this long and uninteresting discourse, by entering 

 my humble protest against the sacrifice of public honour and dignity to private 

 wealth and luxury ; by entering my protest against the vices of an age which 

 subordinates its love of the beautiful to its worship of wealth; which prefers false 

 glitter to true taste ; which makes Art the advertisement of riches instead of 

 their crown and glory ; which wears false hair, false jewels, false gold ; which 

 makes one storied houses look like two storied houses ; whose tastes and whose 

 arts are essentially vain and selfish. I would deliver my own soul by proclaim- 



