him by the architect: the masons are
dexterously handling and fitting their bricks, or, by the help of
machinery, carefully adjusting stones which are numbered for their
places. There is probably in their quickness of eye and readiness of
hand something admirable; but this is not what I ask the reader to
admire: not the carpentering, nor the bricklaying, nor anything that he
can presently see and understand, but the choice of the curve, and the
shaping of the numbered stones, and the appointment of that number;
there were many things to be known and thought upon before these were
decided. The man who chose the curve and numbered the stones, had to
know the times and tides of the river, and the strength of its floods,
and the height and flow of them, and the soil of the banks, and the
endurance of it, and the weight of the stones he had to build with, and
the kind of traffic that day by day would be carried on over his
bridge,--all this specially, and all the great general laws of force and
weight, and their working; and in the choice of the curve and numbering
of stones are expressed not only his knowledge of these, but such
ingenuity and firmness as he had, in applying special means to overcome
the special difficulties about his bridge. There is no saying how much
wit, how much depth of thought, how much fancy, presence of mind,
courage, and fixed resolution there may have gone to the placing of a
single stone of it. This is what we have to admire,--this grand power
and heart of man in the thing; not his technical or empirical way of
holding the trowel and laying mortar.

Sec. VIII. Now there is in everything properly called art this concernment
of the intellect, even in the province of the art which seems merely
practical. For observe: in this bridge-building I suppose no reference
to architectural principles; all that I suppose we want is to get safely
over the river; the man who has taken us over is still a mere
bridge-builder,--a _builder_, not an architect: he may be a rough,
artless, feelingless man, incapable of doing any one truly fine thing
all his days. I shall call upon you to despise him presently in a sort,
but not as if he were a mere smoother of mortar; perhaps a great man,
infinite in memory, indefatigable in labor, exhaustless in expedient,
unsurpassable in quickness of thought. Take good heed you understand him
before you despise him.

Sec. IX. But why is he to be in anywise despised? By no means des