The art prophet which this bourgeois epoch produced corresponded exactly to it--just such a one as might be naturally expected--John Ruskin, old fogy with ideas of no practical value to communicate to the world, but, like Browning and Emerson, full of words, rhymes and sentences. Ruskin conceived a violent passion _à la_ Plato for the Gothic mode of building. He affected to deplore the “foul flood of the Renaissance.” And his great theory was that as the leaves of plants nearly always terminate in a point, it was intended by nature that man should take pattern therefrom for his architecture. To make a theory so point-device consistent Ruskin went so far as to criticise those leaves of plants which terminate in other ways. Imagine some classic writer tracing the origin of the Roman arch to lily-pads which may have floated in the Tiber! The only really clever observation concerning architecture Ruskin ever made was the metaphor he applied to the great mediæval cathedrals--“frozen music.” But he was not a purist of Gothic architecture in the truer sense. Had he been so, he would have defended the Tudor castles of England against Renaissance obtrusion; for the Tudor architecture was a true development of the home idea, legitimate and historical, while that of the Gothic cathedrals was not intended to serve for dwelling-houses by any possible contingency. Yet Ruskin persisted in the feasibility of an anomalous adaptation, something, as a matter of fact, that nobody has achieved with very great credit. For rectories and parish houses the ecclesiastic Gothic may serve as far as sentiment and harmony are desired; but for practical uses it is a failure applied to dwelling-houses. Grace Church rectory is extremely disappointing within if we consider all the disiderata of a modern home, however suggestive of comfort it may be to the casual observer. (See Plate XLVII). PLATE XLVIII. [Illustration: NO. 23 BOND ST., NEW YORK.] [Illustration: THE SARGENT HOUSE (COMMON, EAST), NEW HAVEN.] [Illustration: EAST FOURTH ST., NEW YORK.]