out before he begins. No two
builders will interpret and execute the same set of plans exactly
alike.

There are different habits of training and tricks of trade. What seems
finished elegance to one is coarse awkwardness to another; and when
you enter upon the more artistic part of the work, there are fine
shadings impossible, even with the best intent, to any save the
cultured hand and eye. The inability to perceive and therefore to
bring out these delicate expressions in the execution of the work
must be borne patiently. We can pardon failure when it follows an
humble, honest effort.

The unpardonable sin of builders is their wilful attempt to improve
the architect's design by making alterations in cold blood, through
sheer ignorance and conceit. They will reduce the size of the doors
and windows; substitute some other moulding for that on the drawing;
or tell you they have made a bracket, or a bay-window, or a cupola,
for Mr. Rusticus that looked first-rate, and advise you to have the
same thing. No thought of harmony or fitness, no fine sense of a
distinctive idea, pervading the whole, and giving it unity and
character, ever enters their heads. Argument and persuasion are alike
useless. Your only safety lies in finding some young builder, who is
not yet incurably wise in his own conceit, or an old one, who has
learned that, while architects are not infallible, the taste and
opinions of a man who studies faithfully a special department, are
entitled to more respect than even his own. As you say, these defects
are commonly incurable. Neither is there any redress. The builders
will either tell you they "couldn't help it," "did the best they knew
how," "thought the lumber was seasoned," "understood the plans that
way," or else insist that it's better so,--and maybe ask you to pay
extra for what you do not like. As to your own right to spoil the
house by any alterations that strike your fancy or accommodate your
purse, that is unquestioned. Architects who insist upon your having
what you don't want or choose to pay for, exceed their prerogatives,
and bring disfavor upon us considerate fellows. _We_ never try to
dissuade a man from carrying out his own ideas. We only beg him to be
certain that he has a realizing sense of what he is undertaking, then
help him to execute it as well as we can. The more he leaves to our
discretion the more hopefully do we work.

All this is too late for you, but you may pass it along to F