454 APPENDIX, 17

greater, as Evil, than the labour is great, as Good. As, for instance, if a man has laboured for an hour at what might have been done by another man in a moment, this evidence of his labour is also evidence of his weakness; and this weakness is greater in rank of evil, than his industry is great in rank of good.

Again, if a man have laboured at what was not worth accomplishing, the signs of his labour are the signs of his folly, and his folly dishonours his industry; we had rather he had been a wise man in rest, than a fool in labour.

Again, if a man have laboured without accomplishing anything, the signs of his labour are the signs of his disappointment; and we have more sorrow in sympathy with his failure, than pleasure in sympathy with his work.

Now, therefore, in ornament, whenever labour replaces what was better than labour, that is to say, skill and thought; whenever it substitutes itself for these, or negatives these by its existence, then it is positive evil. Copper is an evil when it alloys gold, or poisons food: not an evil, as copper; good in the form of pence, seriously objectionable when it occupies the room of guineas. Let Danaë cast it out of her lap, when the gold comes from heaven; but let the poor man gather it up carefully from the earth.

Farther, the evidence of labour is not only good when added to other good, but the utter absence of it destroys good in human work. It is only for God to create without toil; that which man can create without toil is worthless: machine ornaments are no ornaments at all. Consider this carefully, reader: I could illustrate it for you endlessly; but you feel it yourself every hour of your existence. And if you do not know that you feel it, take up, for a little time, the trade which of all manual trades has been most honoured: be for once a carpenter. Make for yourself a table or a chair, and see if ever you thought any table or chair so delightful, and what strange beauty there will be in their crooked limbs.

I have not noticed any other animadversions on the Seven Lamps in Mr. Garbett’s volume; but if there be more, I must now leave it to his own consideration, whether he may not, as in the above instances, have made them incautiously: I may,¹ perhaps, also be permitted to request architects, who may happen to glance at the preceding pages, not immediately to condemn what may appear to them false in general principle. I must often be found deficient in technical knowledge;² I may often err in my statements respecting matters of practice or of special law: but I do not write thoughtlessly respecting principles; and my statements of these will generally be found worth reconnoitring before attacking. Architects, no doubt, fancy they have strong grounds for supposing me wrong when they seek to invalidate my assertions. Let me assure them, at least, that I mean to be their friend, although they may not immediately recognise me as such. If I could obtain the public ear, and the principles I have advocated were carried into general practice, porphyry and serpentine would be given to them instead of limestone and brick; instead of tavern and shop-fronts they would have to build goodly

¹ [From this point the second and later editions contain Appendix 17, the words “also” after “I may” and “other” before “architects” being omitted, and the following introductory words being supplied: “I have withdrawn part of these Appendices, which contained merely answers to objections brought forward against my statements; not wishing to encumber the general treatise with accidental inquiry or controversy; but, in doing so, I may perhaps ...”]

² [The words “I must often ... technical knowledge” were added in ed. 2.]

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