It has for years been a question _sub judice_, whether architectural foliated carving, etc., ought to represent natural or purely conventional forms. I am not going to open up this controversy, but I think it right to urge upon you in your studies to follow up _both_, and to aid them by careful study of the actual objects of nature which are suggestive either of one or the other. The period I have recommended as our central rallying-point was just that at which the two kinds of foliage were used together and on equal terms. My own opinion is that no art can be a _living_ one which founds its ornamentation wholly upon a _bygone conventionalism_. This does not, however, prove that we ought directly to copy nature as it comes before us. If we demand conventionalisms, though we _may_ adopt those of our predecessors, we _ought_ to be able to conventionalise for ourselves. For my own part, as I equally admire several of the forms of foliated ornament I find in the range of works I claim as our types, I am content to use them each in their turn; but I cannot reject _nature_ as the _great guide_, though the more we are able so far to conventionalise her productions and to “_bring into service_,” and suit them to the uses to be made of them, the better will our work be. In _sculpture_ I hold that we ought to be able to follow what is good and noble in the form of that art which belonged to the finest period of our architecture, and yet to unite it with the most perfect art which can be produced. _Greek_ art unites perfectly with Gothic, but both demand the spirit and soul of the true artist, aided by the use of what he sees in actual life. I confess, however, that so little opportunity is allowed us for cultivating this art in connection with architecture, and so small the funds at our disposal, that we have fallen into the sin of putting our sculpture into the hands of men of a very inferior class--extemporised, in fact, from amongst our ordinary carvers; and the only wonder to me is, _not_ that they do so badly, but _so well_ as they do. This is a _noble_ subject on which to follow out a new and higher aim, and the students of the Royal Academy might especially devote themselves to its realisation. I fear that we older architects shall not succeed, but we may claim aid of _you_ who have better opportunities; and I would, as a help, suggest a course of study from the finest and purest Greek side by side with the best Gothic sculpture, endeavouring to unite their qualities, and to add to them what is to be gathered from the study of nature--not only the usual study of the human figure, but rather the importing into sculpture touches of nature and fact as they come before us. To this also we need to add the study of _animal_ sculpture, a point in which such artists as we are able to employ are usually, though not always, equally behind-hand.