Professor Donaldson On The Position Of Architecture.*

the arena of European competition with the greatest honour , and carried off the noblest prizes even on foreign ground . It must be allowed , therefore , that the student has had hitherto to labour under great disadvantages , which at length became intolerable , and after many strivings the wants of the younger followers of our art forced

themselves upon our attention . The Institute consequently matured a broad scheme of competitive examinations , which points out the branches of knowledge to be studied , and the extent to which they must be acquired , in order to gain distinction . And thus the contest of life is carried on , and the benefits are not merely resulting to the individualbut are diffused throughout the whole

, mass . The success of one fires the ambition , stimulates the ardour , and excites the hopes of his fellows . He struggles on and studies , and perfects also his mastery of drawing . He loses no opportunity of improvement ; observes , records , and thus strengthens his mind with materials for the future life of action . The sluggard becomes ashamed , aud is aroused from his torpor ; the indolent

throws off his indifference ; even the weaker in intellectual power feels that his capabilities will be improved , sti-ength given to the mind , facility afforded to his manipulations ; that there is a field open to him , and that painstakingand laborious pertinacity , honest , industrious , hard work , may find its reward , though not so high , perhaps , as that of lofty genius , but still a useful ,

honourable , remunerative position . The high prizes in all callings are only for the few . We see that in the church , in law , and in medicine . But there are , nevertheless , notable rewards for those who fill up the intermediate grades of necessary usefulness in the great scheme of social life . These examinations are also useful as affording the young man a true index of his powers and of his weakness . If ho fail , he knows in what department be must work on to acquire the knowledge in which he is deficient . It is better that he should ascertain where his weakness

lies thus early , than that he should be taught it by a disastrous failure in professional practice . Thus the pupil with a purposeless and vague scheme of study in his mind has been taught a useful lesson , and learns that positive , well-grounded methodical knowledge is superior to dreamy idealities of an unstable mind;—that the sooner he puts off his indolent habit of

thought the better ; aud the earlier he begins to methodise his mode of study , and seek a higher standard of attainment , the sooner will he gather the fruit , and the riper that fruit will be . He will find that it is of no use to defer setting to work ; the result of this preliminary contest with his fellows Avill but foreshadow " the results of after-life competition . If in the one he fails and

amends not , in the other he will be sure to be as far behind , with consequences still more serious . Even in my own classes at University College , I can at once distinguish the hopeful student of future years . Tbe earnest attention he bestows on the subject , the eagerness with which he takes into his mind every atom of useful informationand notes them down in his memorandathe

, , accuracy and care ivith which he keeps his note-book , and the fulness and variety with which he enriches and illustrates the reports of the lectures , which I occasionally require of my class during the session;—all these indications prove to me that such-and-such will carry off the prizes and higher certificates of the academic year , and I feel assured that they will afterwards gain the great

prizes of professional life . And thus must it be in these competitive examinations established by this Institute . It is " a generous emulation in which each seeks to rise higher than his fellows , not by striking down his rival , bub , by more practised and skilled attainment , to reach an excelsior height . The examination papers show the progressive steps , from the earliest elements of knowledge up to the higher ranges of creative thought . In the execution of buildings the artisan possesses , as the basis of his knoAvledge ,

the plumb-line to ascertain the perpendicular or vertical , and tube of water to decide the level line , and without which elementary data it would be hardly possible for the practical man to move one step . But it is upon these simple tools , resulting from the general IaAV of gravitation , that is built up the theory of construction , which renders the Pyramids in their vast extent true to that great law

of the universe , and which gives to the Parthenon its stability , and to the magic productions of the Middle Ages their equilibration of vaulting which suspends masses in mid-air with the slightest aid of solid support . Science and laborious study can alone teach this , for the results are not fortuitous , but proceed from the deepest theories and the largest experience . The studentfar

, from being discouraged , should be encouraged by the fact ; for one step leads easily to another , and the enei'gy which can rise up the first round , can as easily surmount the other rounds of the ladder of fame , and each succeeding one will be the easier conquered , and the greater pleasure experienced in the pursuit as success confirms hope and practice increases strength .

We trust , therefore , in January next , to see our young friends come forward to these examinations with as much zeal as tho last , and in undiminished numbers . Then will the profession raise each year its standard of proficiency , and achieve new triumphs in the monuments which will be erected ; until in taste and skill they will not only equal but excel the works of Greece and Rome

and of the Middle Ages , which have hitherto borne the palm of unrivalled excellence . I have to notice another point connected with the education of the young architect;—which is the short time in which parents and guardians imagine that a youth may be qualified to start on his professional career . I have been asked by some if three years would be too much ; and I know cases where a four years ' apprenticeship was considered a species of interminable bondage . There cannot be a doubt that to revive the

term of former times , of seven years clei'kslup in tho office , would be a sacrifice of much precious time ; but when we look at the papers of our competitive examinations , the term that may be usefully passed in the builder ' s workshop and with the practical measurer , and the thorough routine of practice to be acquired in an architect ' s office , we cannot doubt that six or even seven years

may be usefully and agreeably spent by the youth who desires to be an earnest , thorough , well-grounded practitioner , and to enter upon the real battle of life armed at all points , and capable of undertaking any responsibility . In speaking of the professional career I must venture to urge the importance of young men acquiring the

business qualifications of practical life , as being essential to their satisfactorily realising all the fruits of the more intellectual departments of their pursuit . And I do not mean to say that the most qualified are always and necessarily the most successful , or even when successful , carry off the crown without a thorn to remind them of the instability of all human enjoyments . There is so

much of business mixed up with the artistic portion of our profession , that often does patronage or chance , and even the very incompetency of committees or patrons , or cunning , win the premium from the more deserving . The very tendency , as in the other professions , to throw everything , good or bad , great or little , into the hands of a very few who may stand at the top of the tree ,

prevents that fair distribution of employment which would foster rising talent and reward other meritorious members . Again , the want of a distribution of patronage by tho Government in the many works they have to execute , prevents that fair encouragement to those who , after many years of wearisome toil , may have carried off the highest prizes of our schools , and spent a little fortune in foreign travel , and then starting into practice find all their fair claims to notice disregarded and themselves unheeded , as though they had no claims to dis-