"I mean clay that has been wrought into forms of use and beauty, and
prepared by fire to endure almost to the end of time. It is most
commonly found in plain rectangular blocks, but in accordance with the
artistic spirit of the age, brains are now mixed with the sordid earth,
and lasting beauty glows upon the rich, warm face of the strong brick
walls."--

"Yea, verily, amen and amen! Beauty, eloquence and true poetry, bright
gleams of prophetic fire, patriotism, piety and the music of the
spheres. I can see them all in my mind's eye and hear them in my mind's
ear. Jill, my dear, our house shall be bricks--excuse me, I mean
_brains_--and mortar, from turret to foundation stone. Consider that
settled, and if the meeting is unanimous we will now adjourn till
to-morrow morning."

"One moment, if you please. Filling the spaces behind the lathing in a
brick house with some fireproof and non-conducting material is a
concession to usual modes of building. A more satisfactory construction
still would be to build the wails of hollow bricks and with air spaces
so disposed that neither wood furrings nor laths would be necessary.
There is, moreover, no good reason why the inner surfaces of the main
walls of a brick house and both sides of the partitions should not form
the final finish of the rooms. Glazed bricks or tiles built into the
walls, or secured to them after they are built, are vastly more
satisfactory than a fragile and incongruous patchwork of wood, leather,
metal, paper, paint and mortar, thrown together in some of the thousand
and one fantastic fashions that spring up in a day, run their little
course, and speedily return to the dust they have spent their short
lives in collecting. I am afraid to dwell on this theme lest I should
lie awake all night in a fever of futile protest."