of judgment in myself, which it would not
have been becoming in a youth of eighteen to claim...."

"As it is, these youthful essays, though deformed by assumption, and
shallow in contents, are curiously right up to the points they reach;
and already distinguished above most of the literature of the time, for
the skill of language, which the public at once felt for a pleasant gift
in me." (_Praeterita_, vol. I. chap. 12.)

In a paper on "My First Editor," written in 1878, Mr. Ruskin says of
these essays that they "contain sentences nearly as well put together as
any I have done since."

The Conductor of the _Architectural Magazine_ in reviewing the year's
work said (December, 1838):--"One series of papers, commenced in the
last volume and concluded in the present one, we consider to be of
particular value to the young architect. We allude to the 'Essays on the
Poetry of Architecture,' by Kata Phusin. These essays will afford little
pleasure to the mere builder, or to the architect who has no principle
of guidance but precedent; but for such readers they were never
intended. They are addressed to the young and unprejudiced artist; and
their great object is to induce him to think and to exercise his
reason.... There are some, we trust, of the rising generation, who are
able to free themselves from the trammels and architectural bigotry of
Vitruvius and his followers; and it is to such alone that we look
forward for any real improvement in architecture as an art of design and
taste."

The essays are in two parts: the first describing the cottages of
England, France, Switzerland, and Italy, and giving hints and directions
for picturesque cottage-building. The second part treats of the villas
of Italy and England--with special reference to Como and Windermere; and
concludes with a discussion of the laws of artistic composition, and
practical suggestions of interest to the builders of country-houses.

It was the Author's original intention to have proceeded from the
cottage and the villa to the higher forms of Architecture; but the
Magazine to which he contributed was brought to a close shortly after
the completion of his chapters on the villa, and his promise of farther
studies was not redeemed until ten years later, by the publication of
_The Seven Lamps of Architecture_, and still more completely in _The
Stones of Venice_.

Other papers contributed by Mr. Ruskin to the same Magazine, on
Perspective, and on the propos