Mr. Hastings's Lecture.

Mr. Thomas Hastings gave another of his interesting lectures last evening, on "Elevations and how to Compose them."

He said that it was impossible to learn the art of composition from books. It is only through the direction and guidance of competent architects that we can hope to acquire this subtle capacity which is one of the fundamental requirements of the beginner. Inspiration in composition is only to be obtained by the hardest kind of work, and it will come much oftener to the steady persevering worker than to the brilliant genius who waits for it.

The main trouble with American architects is that they undertake too much to do it well. The result is that the composition of their plans becomes a mere matter of business without any vestige of art, which should, by rights, play so important a part.

Originality is another of the evils which confront the American architect of the present day. The real cause for this difficulty is that Americans are constantly striving to be different from every one else and in consequence are original when there is no real necessity. True originality lies in the ability to separate the good from the evil in our own work, and if we compose in the right way we can never cease to be original.

The subject which probably gives the architect the greatest trouble is taste. Depending as it does on the feelings of the different clients, it cannot fail to become mainly a personal question and consequently rest on prejudices. The remedy for this evil lies in the education of the world at large, for if more traditions were firmly stamped on the minds of the young, there would be fewer excentricities when they become more mature.

Throughout, in composition the architect should hold truth before him as the ideal which he is striving to attain, he should never resort to constructive trickery. A bad idea suppressed is a triumph for the good.

Repetition is another feature of composition which is not thoroughly understood here in America. In fact our architects are afraid of it, having seen its baneful effects in the series of contract built houses which deface New York's streets, but it has been used with great effect, notably in the Palais Royal. Contrast is the bringing together of two great qualities or forms which are in opposition to one another. It is one of the salient features of the Spanish renaissance.

Proportion is the united relation of the several parts of a building. It is a refined sense of what looks well. Architects are altogether too fond of using complicated formulas in proportion, when simple rules are just as useful and all that is really necessary for it.

Mr. Hastings then exhibited a series of stereopticon views, showing the development of composition from buildings of one dimension to those of three, giving the City Hall in New York as an example of the latter.