William Burges Quote

There are two great uses of antiquarian studies. One of them is to enable us to conjure up as if by the magician's wand the dress, furniture, architecture, &c., of past ages, so that we can live, as it were, in many centuries almost at the same moment. This is a very great and a very pleasant species of knowledge, but it is not particularly useful in this work-a-day world; and it sometimes, like other knowledge, renders its possessor far from happy, more especially when he goes to the theatre, and sees all sorts of anachronisms and impossibilities a. The other use of antiquarian studies is to restore disused arts, and to get all the good we can out of them for our own improvement.


p. 13 - Art applied to industry: a series of lectures, 1865


There are two great uses of antiquarian studies. One of them is to enable us to conjure up as if by the magician's wand the dress, furniture,...

There are two great uses of antiquarian studies. One of them is to enable us to conjure up as if by the magician's wand the dress, furniture,...

There are two great uses of antiquarian studies. One of them is to enable us to conjure up as if by the magician's wand the dress, furniture,...

There are two great uses of antiquarian studies. One of them is to enable us to conjure up as if by the magician's wand the dress, furniture,...