The Artist 



would be constrained to closer accuracy in 

 their calculations, and the proprietor would 

 complete his building for the amount, or a 

 little more than the amount, which he ex- 

 pected to expend. Those who can afford 

 a given sum for any work would cheerfully 

 add one-fourth more in the pleasing expec- 

 tation of seeing it completed ; but when 

 they find themselves burdened with the 

 addition of half, or even more than half, 

 the expense originally contemplated, they 

 lose heart, and are wilhng to sacrifice what 

 has been already laid out." 



Thus we see that the Romans were a 

 good deal like ourselves, and that the 

 wonderful legal system of Rome, like the 

 modern American system, failed to cover 

 all possible contingencies of dispute. How 

 far an artist is justified in exceeding the 

 estimates agreed upon at the outset of his 

 labors is a question still as frequently dis- 

 cussed as it was in the time of Augustus. 

 Clients still protest that they are robbed 

 when they have to spend more than they 

 anticipated ; and doubtless artists then 

 claimed, as they do to-day, that they 



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