The ignorance which urges the pre-eminence of PAINTING at the expense of ARCHITECTURE is more to be pitied than contemned. And the public patronage lavished on the one and withheld from the other, is superinduced by the ease with which any one can assume to be a critical admirer of an art whose governing rules are imaginary rather than real or substantial. Some see beauty in the fidelity which a painting bears to Nature. Others consider that very fidelity as slavish imitation. And a very general notion obtains amongst painters of “assisting Nature.” Now, ARCHITECTURE stands upon the solid base of TRUTH. Without imitating, it borrows applicable ideas from Nature to be used in carrying out its designs. Nor is it merely the imaginations, limnings, as in the case of PAINTINGS; those designs have to be executed. CONSTRUCTION then comes in as the solid, tangible, work of art, which shall defy the elements and render ARCHITECTURE the protectress of PAINTING, without whose solid enduring defence the more fragile art would speedily decay and become unknown. But, are not the professors and admirers of ARCHITECTURE themselves to blame for the degraded position it holds to-day as an art, here and in Europe? Why is there not more practical enthusiasm, and altogether less contemptible jealousy, and ill-natured feeling, amongst all who claim to have an interest in this the grandest and most over-shadowing of the Arts? If PAINTING must needs hold an exclusive position as regards the public exhibitions of what is most erroneously called the “Fine Arts,” why cannot ARCHITECTURE and SCULPTURE assert their dignity, and give the public a chance to patronize them independently? The truth is that Architecture and Painting do not at all agree in sentiment; the one is a mere luxury, and no more; the other is a necessary art, adorned or unadorned. The one can be glanced at and instantly understood; the other demands the effort of the mind to study and to comprehend. In PAINTING, the eye is the arbiter; in ARCHITECTURE, the eye and the mind must form the judgment. It is not what a merely pretty picture is displayed; it is—how would that design look in execution?