ed to form as noble a school of color as ever existed.[19]

[Footnote 19: A series of four examples of designs for windows was
exhibited at this point of the lecture, but I have not engraved them, as
they were hastily made for the purposes of momentary illustration, and
are not such as I choose to publish or perpetuate.]

54. And, now, I have but two things more to say to you in conclusion.

Most of the lecturers whom you allow to address you, lay before you
views of the sciences they profess, which are either generally received,
or incontrovertible. I come before you at a disadvantage; for I cannot
conscientiously tell you anything about architecture but what is at
variance with all commonly received views upon the subject. I come
before you, professedly to speak of things forgotten or things disputed;
and I lay before you, not accepted principles, but questions at issue.
Of those questions you are to be the judges, and to you I appeal. You
must not, when you leave this room, if you feel doubtful of the truth of
what I have said, refer yourselves to some architect of established
reputation, and ask him whether I am right or not. You might as well,
had you lived in the sixteenth century, have asked a Roman Catholic
archbishop his opinion of the first reformer. I deny his jurisdiction;
I refuse his decision. I call upon you to be Bereans in architecture, as
you are in religion, and to search into these things for yourselves.
Remember that, however candid a man may be, it is too much to expect of
him when his career in life has been successful, to turn suddenly on the
highway, and to declare that all he has learned has been false, and all
he has done, worthless; yet nothing less than such a declaration as this
must be made by nearly every existing architect, before he admitted the
truth of one word that I have said to you this evening. You must be
prepared, therefore, to hear my opinions attacked with all the virulence
of established interest, and all the pertinacity of confirmed prejudice;
you will hear them made the subjects of every species of satire and
invective; but one kind of opposition to them you will never hear; you
will never hear them met by quiet, steady, rational argument; for that
is the one way in which they _cannot_ be met. You will constantly hear
me accused--you yourselves may be the first to accuse me--of presumption
in speaking thus confidently against the established authority of ages.
Presumption!