165. It would be excessively interesting to follow out the investigation
of this subject more fully, and to show how the most refined pleasures,
the most delicate perceptions, of the creature who has been appointed to
eat bread by the sweat of his brow, are dependent upon, and intimately
connected with, his hours of labor. This question, however, has no
relation to our immediate object, and we only allude to it, that we may
be able to distinguish between the two component parts of individual
character; the one being the consequence of continuous habits of life
acting upon natural temperament and disposition, the other being the
_humor_ of character, consequent upon circumstances altogether
accidental, taking stern effect upon feelings previously determined by
the first part of the character; laying on, as it were, the finishing
touches, and occasioning the innumerable prejudices, fancies, and
eccentricities, which, modified in every individual to an infinite
extent, form the visible veil of the human heart.
166. Now, we have defined the province of the architect to be, that of
selecting such forms and colors as shall delight the mind, by preparing
it for the operations to which it is to be subjected in the building.
Now, no forms, in domestic architecture, can thus prepare it more
distinctly than those which correspond closely with the first, that is,
the fixed and fundamental, part of character, which is always so uniform
in its action, as to induce great simplicity in whatever it designs.
Pages:
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166