P R E F A 0 E.

“We have been so long accustomed to speakof our National Architecture in the terms, andaccording to the classification bequeathed to usby Mr. Rickman, and those terms and that classi-fication are so well understood and have been souniversally adopted, that any proposal to supersedethe one, or to modify the other, requires some-what more than a mere apology. To disturb aNomenclature of long standing, to set aside termsin familiar use, and to set up others in theirplace which are strange, and therefore at firstunintelligible, involves an interruption of thatfacility with which we are accustomed to com-municate with one another on any given subject,that is only to be justified by reasons of a cogentand satisfactory nature.

“ The sufficiency of Mr. Rickman’s Nomen-clature and Divisions, and their suitableness atthe time and for the purpose for which they weremade, are best evidenced by the fact that, althoughthe attempts to supersede them have been bothnumerous and persevering, they have remained