needs and tastes than that can be which precisely suits some one else.
If he can give no better reason for building as he builds, for
furnishing as he furnishes, for living and thinking as he lives and
thinks, than that another has done so before him, he may serve for the
shadow of a man, but will never make the substance. Eastlake, another
English authority, refers to continental cities and villages "the
first glimpse of which is associated with a sense of eye-pleasure
which is utterly absent in our provincial towns." And then, to drain
the dregs of our humiliation, we are asked by his American editor to
believe that, nevertheless, certain towns of the British Isles are
miracles of picturesqueness "as compared with American towns, which
have nothing but a succession of tame, monotonously ugly, and utterly
uninteresting streets and squares to offer to the wearied eye." Yes, I
am anxious about the outside of the house, but do not for a moment
forget that it should always be subordinate to the weightier matters,
the higher and holier uses of "home buildings."

[Illustration: "PICTURESQUE AMERICA."]

Have I squared up your point? Let us return to the trowel.

The somewhat vexed question of mortar you shall answer according to
your taste, so far as to choose between dark gray--"black" it is
commonly called--and some shade of red, resembling the brick used.
Between these two there seems to me to be one of those questions of
taste, concerning which we are not permitted to dispute. With the dark
mortar the joints will be visible, modifying the color of the wall,
in some cases, perhaps, improving it; while the red will give a more
uniform tint, on which not only colored brick or stone will appear to
the best advantage, but the lines of the openings and other essential