“You maintain, then, that as much ability is required to build a moderate-sized house as to erect a vast palace?”
“I do not say that; I say that the faculties of the mind, reasoning, accuracy, the exact appreciation of the materials at our disposal, and their proper use, are manifested as well in the construction of the simplest habitation as in the erection of the most magnificent architectural monument.”
“I shall then be able to learn much in observing the building of my sister’s house?”
“Certainly. First, because one learns much when one has the wish to learn; secondly, because in a house, as in the largest of palaces, the entire architectural staff will have to present themselves before you, from the excavator to the decorative painter. Whether the carpenter makes twenty doors or two hundred, if you can get a clear notion of how a door is made, hinged, and hung, one alone is quite enough; you have no need to see a thousand.”
“But here we shall not be making doors (for example) such as those of royal apartments?”
“No; but the principles on which they are, or ought to be made, are the same for both; and it is by departing from these principles that we fall into mere whims and follies. When you know how a wooden door is made you will see that the structure is adapted to the nature of the material employed, viz., wood, and to the purpose it has to serve. This knowledge acquired, you will be able to study how clever men have made use of these elements, and how (without departing from fundamental principles) they have produced simple or splendid works; you will be able to do as they have done, if you have talent, and to seek new applications of principles. But you must, in the first place, know how a door is made, and not imitate at hazard, while destitute of this preliminary practical knowledge, the various forms that have been adopted, be they good or bad.”
Paul continued thoughtful all the rest of the day. It was evident that he was becoming aware of grave difficulties, and the building of his sister’s house was assuming in his mind disquieting proportions. Returning to the château, he began to look at the doors, the windows, and the wainscoting, as if he had never seen anything like them in his life; and the longer he looked, the more confused, complicated, and difficult to understand did it all appear to him. He had never asked himself by what contrivances these pieces of wood were combined and held together, and found hardly any satisfactory solutions of the questions he was putting to himself.
CHAPTER IX.
PAUL, CLERK OF THE WORKS.
“Go, my dear Paul, and see how far the excavations are advanced this morning,” said Eugène, two days after the visit to the ground, “and bring me your report. Take a rule and a note-book with you, and take notes and measurements of what has been done. You will examine the ground, and tell me if they find blocks of stone near the surface of the soil, or if the loose earth is deep. In the meantime I am going to draw the plan of the cellars. But take the tracing of the plan of the ground-floor of the house, and on this plan, mark out what they have begun to excavate, and what they find. The work cannot be far advanced; but some excavations will have been already made, since I have told Branchu to set as many labourers to work as he could find, so as to comply with your father’s intentions.”
A little embarrassed by his new duties, Paul soon reached the ground. Aided by Branchu, he took the measure of the diggings, indicated the depths as well as he could, and marked the spots where they found rock or loose earth. This took him two good hours.