however, be ignorant of the general principles of each.
For in such a variety of matters, it cannot be supposed
that the same person can arrive at excellence in each.
since to be aware of their several niceties and bearings.
cannot fall within his power. We see how few of those
who profess a particular art arrive at perfection in it, so
as to distinguish themselves: hence, if but few of those
practising an individual art, obtain lasting fame, how
should the architect, who is required to have a knowledge -
of so many, be deficient in none of them, and
even excel those who have professed any one exclusively.
Wherefore Pythius seems to have been in error, forgetting -
that art consists in practice and theory. Theory
is common to, and may be known by all, but the result
of practice occurs to the artist in his own art only. The
physician and musician are each obliged to have some
regard to the beating of the pulse, and the motion of
the feet, but who would apply to the latter to heal a
wound or cure a malady? so, without the aid of the former, -
the musician affects the ears of his audience by
modulations upon his instrument. The astronomer and
musician delight in similar proportions, for the positions
of the stars, which are quartile and trine, answer to à
fourth and fifth in harmony. The same analogy holds
in that branch of geometry which the Greeks call Mévos
ömrikös: indeed, throughout the whole range of art, there
are many incidents common to all. Practice alone can
lead to excellence in any one : that architect, therefore.
is sufficiently educated, whose general knowledge enables -
him to give his opinion on any branch when required -
to do so. Those unto whom nature has been so
bountiful that they are at once geometricians, astronomers,
musicians, and skilled in many other arts, go
beyond what is required of the architect, and may be
properly called mathematicians, in the extended sense of
that word. Men so gifted, discriminate acutely, and
are rarely met with. Such, however, was Aristarchus of
