Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/130

102 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [August, THE CHARACTER OF AN ARCHITECT, WITH EEFEEENCE TO THE LIFE AND VIEWS OF MARCUS VITRUVIUS POLLIO. ALTHOUGH there may be occa- sional exceptions, yet it is true, in the main, that any man highly and deservedly distinguished in any branch of literature, science, or art, will be well informed upon almost all subjects. This arises from the very nature of the circle of knowledge, the relationship and intercommunication of all whose divisions are such, that he who really masters one, must, in the effort, become pretty well acquainted with most of the others. Any degree of the circle leads, imperceptibly, to all the rest. Thence it follows, that the neophyte of good natural ability, ma} r make a tangential approach ; but it is quite surely con- verted into a circumferential sojourn. Yet, while the tyro, in any department, is invariably told by the lecturer, or in- formed by the author, in every variety of phraseology, that " every beginning is -difficult," he generally finds, that nearly all the difficulty is in the begin- ning, which over, it is really easier for him to proceed than to stop. As, though, ability, disposition, leisure, means and opportunity must concur, great men are few ; but, relatively, great men, only great in one direction, are fewer. This is acknowledged, at least tacitly, by nearly all professional writers treating upon eminence in their own specialties, and is sometimes openly claimed. It springs, probably, from the innate tendency of man rather to over- estimate than to disparage greatness, if not coeval, and " to magnify his office." It is none the less true, that the thorough, creative architect must be possessed of sound memory, large native capacity, great breadth of im- agination and unwearied industry, to attain the multi-commingled knowledge and information, the keenness of eve and the accurac} r of hand, which consti- tutes the professor, the master. These positions are well exemplified, both in what little of a personal nature remains concerning Yitruvius himself, and in his own first chapter, which is really the embodiment of his beau ideal of the character of the model architect. Marcus Yitruvius Pollio, known to the moderns as Yitruvius, was a Roman citizen. We know nothing certainly of the time or place of his birth. He men- tions incidentally, in his treatise, that Caius Julius, the son of Masinissa, who was an officer in the army of Julius Caesar, lodged with him ; and, from the dedication of his work, Octavius Cae6ar was his patron. It is presumable, from fragmentary inscriptions relating to the Vitruvia family, found near Formise, the present Mola di Gaela, that Yitru- vius was born in that neighborhood. As he speaks of a temple erected in honor of Augustus, in his basilica at Fano, the likelihood is, that his work was composed late in life, and presented to Octavius after he had assumed the title of emperor. Pollio was undoubt- edly well born, highly cultivated, and endowed with unusual talents. In the introductory to his sixth book he says : " Such as possess the gifts of fortune " are easily deprived of them ; but " when learning is once fixed in the "mind, no age removes it, nor is its " stability affected during the whole "course of life. I therefore feel myself "under infinite obligations, and am " grateful to m.j parents, who, adopting "the practice of the Athenians, took " care, that I should be taught an art, "and one of such a nature, that it can- " not be practiced without learning and