Hobbs''s Architecture: Containing Designs and Ground Plans for Villas, Cottages, and Other Edifices, Both Suburban and Rural, Adapted to the United States; With Rules for Criticism, and Introduction (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Hobbs's Architecture: Containing Designs and Ground Plans for Villas, Cottages, and Other Edifices, Both Suburban and Rural, Adapted to the United States; With Rules for Criticism, and Introduction

Fitness must be considered as a general common sense that must pervade the work in order that every part may be balanced, and not, as is frequently the case, one part be over-large and another meanly small. The only means of acquiring this branch of architecture is by observation and learning to think clearly, I might say, mechanically. Endeavor to avoid that general view which most people take of that which surrounds them. A head full of half-understood matter, for an architect, is no head at all. In order that an individual may discover to what amount he comprehends what he sees, let him look at any object for some time until he thinks he understands it; then as a test let him shut his eyes, bring upon his imagination the image, and contemplate it in this manner for a time, until he examines thoroughly all his understanding has received; then, upon opening his eyes and looking again upon the object, he will begin correctly to estimate his powers of perception, and, if they are defective, try to im prove them by practice, examination, study of principles, and gathering of details, day after day, and so improve a dull under standing that in a short time, by a mental gymnastic process of this kind, the eyes Will be able to afford architectural abilities rapidly to the student. I often think that good judgment is as capable of being taught as mathematics, philosophy, or anything else. Yet how often do we meet gentlemen possessed of excel lent education, with miserably cultivated judgment; it will, in most cases, be traceable to the want of a cultivated perception founded upon a correct understanding. I do not know of any thing more capable of cultivating the mind than drawing from sketches made from nature by the person drawing, - a practice I cannot too strongly recommend to every student of architecture, as nothing will more rapidly test your understanding than drawing it from memory.

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