Note 219 — Chapter XI · TOLEDO.

I am aware that in saying this I blame myself as much as any one else. The truth is, that so violent is the popular prejudice on some points that he must be a bold architect who ventures to run counter to it; and I am quite sure that the first brick building I erect with the brickwork executed in the proper way will be met by a storm of abuse from all sides. This is a great snare to most of us. Nothing is more easy than to secure popular applause in architecture. If we abstain from study, thought, or over-labour about the execution of every detail, we may still do what every one will agree is right and proper, because it has been done five hundred times before; but if we only give a fair amount of all three we are sure to meet with plenty of critics who never give any of either, and who hate our work in proportion to their own incapacity to criticize it from their old standpoint.