Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/133

 1868.] The Character of an Architect 105 born manager of men, which persuades every tactile man, within its influence, to feel, that the arch-tactician is so genial, so obliging, so prone to seek occasion for conferring a favor, and altogether so much a man of men. Tact, the want of which is so seldom countervailed, that only the ever-and-every where-en- croaching preponderant power of the born ruler of men can possibly do with- out it, and which it were much better even for such to possess and employ. Here was Vitruvius, — well born, highly gifted, and thoroughly cultured ; and successful in his art, though not in its reward ; attending to his own affairs, and assuredly taking pains to be just to all men ; a good son and a good neighbor ; who was very unpopular, and com- paratively poor. Singularly enough, the only architect, whom we can legiti- mately call his successor, considering and comparing the very peculiar and increasing influence belonging to both, as discoverers and effectual transmit- ters of fundamental principles, Andrea Palladio, the Vicentine, — who, born in poverty, of the humblest parentage, yet by his assiduity in all the liberal studies, his successful researches into the true principles of ancient architec- tural art, his exceedingly happy applica- tion of those principles in the adornment of Vicenza, and — what the over-hasty biographers forgot to mention — his con- summate tact, was made free of his native city, and cheerfully received into the body of the nobility We lighten this melancholy comparison with the side remark, that, by an exceedingly curious coincidence, the family names of these architectural worthies — Pollio, Palladio — both begin and end with the same letters. All honor to these two glorious sons of Italy, who lived inside a circle of two hundred and seventy miles, in the same land, indeed, but nearly sixteen hundred years apart. "Vitruvius may have been shy and re- served, but he was neither a misanthrope, nor a disappointed malignant. Through- out his work he is thoroughly genial ; and nothing seems to afford him more satisfaction than to praise others, when deserving. What, pray, is the value of indiscriminate praise ? In the second chapter of his sixth book, Pollio acknowledges the supe- riority of genius to learning. He was one of the writers from whom Pliny compiled ; and he is mentioned by Fron- tinus, in his Treatise on Aqueducts, as the first who introduced the Quinarian measure. His influence over after ages is best hinted, in a few words, by his best English translator, Joseph Grwilt, who speaks of " the singular connection " between the successful cultivation of " the arts and the appearance of the "different editions of Vitruvius." His practice comprised what, in our day, is equivalent to the three closely allied professions of architecture, and civil and military engineering ; • although, in modern times, it generally requires two professors for the three professions, sur- veying being certainly comprehended in the last two and generally in the first. Thus, there are many, who successfully combine architecture and civil engineer- ing, or military and civil engineering, or even general engineering with naval construction, but few practice the en- tire corresponding range now, as Vitru- vius did then. At the same time, to obtain a fair comparison, it must be recollected, that the same range em- bodies many times the ancient amount of detail. We refer constantly to the ancients. Vitruvius very frequently does the same Let us see, then, what this ancient- modern, or modern-ancient has to ad- vance. The Character op an Architect. When he says, that an architect should be a good writer, he only means what is now a good penman ; and good merely in the qualities of facility and legibility, that he may make rapid and reliable minutes of the points derived from read-