Abstract:
The memoranda which form the basis of the following Essay have been thrown together during the
preparation of one of the sections of the third volume of "Modern Painters."[A] I once thought of
giving them a more expanded form; but their utility, such as it may be, would probably be diminished
by farther delay in their publication, more than it would be increased by greater care in their
arrangement. Obtained in every case by personal observation, there may be among them some details
valuable even to the experienced architect; but with respect to the opinions founded upon them I must
be prepared to bear the charge of impertinence which can hardly but attach to the writer who assumes
a dogmatical tone in speaking of an art he has never practised. There are, however, cases in which
men feel too keenly to be silent, and perhaps too strongly to be wrong; I have been forced into this
impertinence; and have suffered too much from the destruction or neglect of the architecture I best
loved, and from the erection of that which I cannot love, to reason cautiously respecting the modesty
of my opposition to the principles which have induced the scorn of the one, or directed the design of
the other. And I have been the less careful to modify the confidence of my statements of principles,
because in the midst of the opposition and uncertainty of our architectural systems, it seems to me that
there is something grateful in any positive opinion, though in many points wrong, as even weeds are
useful that grow on a bank of sand.
