ves in the choice of
situation, will not be found too critical of their domicile, however
little suited to their temper.

177. If possible, however, he should aim at something more; he should
draw his employer into general conversation; observe the bent of his
disposition, and the habits of his mind; notice every manifestation of
fixed opinions, and then transfer to his architecture as much of the
feeling he has observed as is distinct in its operation. This he should
do, not because the general spectator will be aware of the aptness of
the building, which, knowing nothing of its inmate, he cannot be; nor to
please the individual himself, which it is a chance if any simple design
ever will, and who never will find out how well his character has been
fitted; but because a portrait is always more spirited than a composed
countenance; and because this study of human passions will bring a
degree of energy, unity, and originality into every one of his designs
(all of which will necessarily be different), so simple, so domestic,
and so lifelike, as to strike every spectator with an interest and a
sympathy, for which he will be utterly unable to account, and to impress
on him a perception of something more ethereal than stone or carving,
somewhat similar to that which some will remember having felt
disagreeably in their childhood, on looking at any old house
authentically haunted. The architect will forget in his study of life
the formalities of science, and, while his practiced eye will prevent
him from erring in technicalities, he will advance, with the ruling
feeling, which, in masses of mind, is nationality, to the conception of
something truly original, yet perfectly pure.

178. He will also find his advantage in having obtained a guide in the
invention of decorations of which, as we shall show, we would have many
more in English villas than economy at present allows. Candidus[33]
complains, in his Note Book, that Elizabethan architecture is frequently
adopted, because it is easy, with a pair of scissors, to derive a zigzag
ornament from a doubled piece of paper. But we would fain hope that none
of our professional architects have so far lost sight of the meaning of
their art, as to believe that roughening stone mathematically is
bestowing decoration, though we are too sternly convinced that they
believe mankind to be more shortsighted by at least thirty yards than
they are; for they think of nothing but general effect i