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III.]
Architecture—Theory.
69

ness of matter than in any other. Imagination comes in contact with reality at every step, and the laws of nature impress the boundaries of that reality, not at the risk of absurdity but of very being. Beauty becomes here, not the creation of fantasy, something pleasing only as it reflects our associations or harmonises with our feelings, but as more especially the creation of science, the object of demonstrative wisdom. Hence perfect architectural beauty is the most sublime and the most rational of the objects of taste; because, while the susceptibilities of the mind are awakened, the powers of judgment are gratified by the certainty with which the sources of pleasure can be traced. We feel the arrangement to be beautiful; we know that it is necessary. Hence also the perfect modes, the true combinations of the art are few; the error in departing from them great."

Thus it is that the architect's study and right apprehension of the utilitarian value and modes of conversion of the materials he has to deal with, go far to determine the style in which he will find himself compelled to work; and the Greeks have therefore rightly placed this study as first in order of all those which must engage the architect's attention.

Their second heading, Convenience, comprises a careful study of how best to supply the wants of those for whom the architect may have to build. It is obviously one of his most important functions to identify himself with the views of his employers, from the immediate date of his employment. If the wants of his employer should appear to be inconsistent with one another, to be imprudent, too grandiose, or too mean, trivial, or beyond the occasion, it will be his duty to give to his employer the advantage of his experience as to the mode in which wants of the same class have been more or less successfully supplied on other or former occasions, and with what modifications.

To be in a position to advise then, under the head of Convenience, the architect must make a severe and careful

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