A certain portion of knowledge ought to be attained at home, and therefore my first undertaking will be to point out what ought to be learned, previous to any attempt at improvement by travelling. A task the more necessary, because there is, as far as I know, no instruction now usually given, either public or private, by which it is indicated. The student in architecture has to consider four objects, which have no natural connexion with each other, but which nevertheless must be united in the erection of every edifice, _beauty_, _solidity_, _convenience_, and _economy_. Our exclusion for many years from the continent, no less perhaps than a somewhat severe, and rigid spirit, which requires in every thing utility, and almost limits that utility to bodily accommodation, has inclined us to neglect the study of the beautiful. Other reasons might be added, and in particular the notion very prevalent among the students themselves, that the conception of beauty, and the capacity of producing it, are gifts of nature, not the fruit of application; “Poeta nascitur, non fit,” they apply to artists as well as to poets, and support their opinion by the very remarkable fact, that the great men in every country have been formed independently of academies, and that after such establishments are formed, great men cease. There is undoubtedly some truth in this, and it would be very desirable that some one capable of the task would undertake to explain the reason of the deficiency; but when it is applied as a reason against study, it is, as far as regards architecture, completely false. Because supposing even that the highest beauties should present themselves unsought to the man of genius, yet, whatever talent he might have, it would require great study to be able to comprehend the relation between the object to be produced, and the drawings and descriptions by which it is to be explained to others. Nor is it at all true that the most celebrated architects have wanted the means of instruction. Palladio, and all the others who have highly distinguished themselves, have enriched their fancy, and purified their taste, by studying the ancient monuments of Rome. Michael Angelo in his old age was found by Cardinal Farnese at the Coliseum, when the ground was covered with snow, and replied to the inquiries of the cardinal, that he was there to study architecture.