88 Observations on Architecture. 



in the practice of the other arts ? — No ! the greatest pro- 

 fessors of them all have been also the greatest designers. 

 Is it not then fair to infer, that they who have excelled in the 

 one w*>uld likewise excel in the other if equally employed ? 



Jf these assumptions be admitted, the conclusion is, 

 that our supposed inferiority in this art is not to be at- 

 tributed to " national causes," or to " want of talent," but 

 to the absence of national discernment, which creates dis- 

 gust, and neglects to distinguish those who by their taste 

 deserve public patronage. The French excel us in this 

 discernment (if any judgement can be justly formed of their 

 new buildings); and this assertion will be borne out by all 

 who have had an opportunity of viewing their capital during 

 the peace of Amiens. A Gallery-advocate may perhaps 

 answer, "And do not our nobility, to whom the arts alone 

 can look for patronage, extend it liberally ? Have they not 

 established a British Institution ; and do they not by their 

 munificence add a real value to its establishment, by select- 

 ing and purchasing the best performances that are therein 

 exhibited ?" Granted : — But this- has advanced one or two 

 branches of art only j and has left the architect, whose ad- 

 vancement forms the purpose of this paper, in a state of 

 total neglect. No reflection can attach to the institution : 

 it has done immense service to the arts; and it is only re- 

 gretted, that, from the known liberality of its promoters, 

 they should not have adopted some mode of giving. equal 

 encouragement to architecture. 



At Athens, the birth-place of the arts, architecture stood 

 thejirst in importance, as it did- in perfection and glory :. — to 

 expect Athenian encouragement in England may appear vain j 

 but it is a species of vanity which same have cherished, and 

 many expected to realize when that noble establishment was 

 first formed. — The beauties of this art are not confined to the 

 operations of the mere, rule and compass, as some have ima- 

 gined j nor are her greatest attributes, the orders, formed to 

 arbitrary proportions, as some have asserted. It would be 

 difficult indeed to fix on what those proportions consisted ; for 

 in all the remains of antiquity no two are found to be exactly 

 similar \ the required purpose alone directed the architect in 



the 



