and
that not to feel the want of anything is true riches. There may be some
people, however, who deem all this of no consequence, and think that the
wise are those who have plenty of money. Hence it is that very many, in
pursuit of that end, take upon themselves impudent assurance, and attain
notoriety and wealth at the same time.

5. But for my part, Caesar, I have never been eager to make money by my
art, but have gone on the principle that slender means and a good
reputation are preferable to wealth and disrepute. For this reason, only
a little celebrity has followed; but still, my hope is that, with the
publication of these books, I shall become known even to posterity. And
it is not to be wondered at that I am so generally unknown. Other
architects go about and ask for opportunities to practise their
profession; but I have been taught by my instructors that it is the
proper thing to undertake a charge only after being asked, and not to
ask for it; since a gentleman will blush with shame at petitioning for
a thing that arouses suspicion. It is in fact those who can grant
favours that are courted, not those who receive them. What are we to
think must be the suspicions of a man who is asked to allow his private
means to be expended in order to please a petitioner? Must he not
believe that the thing is to be done for the profit and advantage of
that individual?

6. Hence it was that the ancients used to entrust their work in the
first place to architects of good family, and next inquired whether they
had been properly educated, believing that one ought to trust in the
honour of a gentleman rather than in the assurance of impudence. And the
architects themselves would teach none but their own sons or kinsmen,
and trained them to be good men, who could be trusted without hesitation
in matters of such importance.

But when I see that this grand art is boldly professed by the uneducated
and the unskilful, and by men who, far from being acquainted with
architecture, have no knowledge even of the carpenter's trade, I can
find nothing but praise for those householders who, in the confidence of
learning, are emboldened to build for themselves. Their judgment is
that, if they must trust to inexperienced persons, it is more becoming
to them to use up a good round sum at their own pleasure than at that of
a stranger.

7. Nobody, therefore, attempts to practise any other art in his own
home--as, for instance, the shoemaker's,