The Ten Books on Architecture, 2.1.6

Vitruvius  translated by Joseph Gwilt

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6It is from such specimens we are enabled to form just ideas of the early method of building. Daily practice made the original builders more skilful, and experience increased their confidence; those who took more delight in the science making it their exclusive profession. Thus man, who, in addition to the senses which other animals enjoy in common with him, is gifted by nature with such powers of thought and understanding, that no subject is too difficult for his apprehension, and the brute creation are subject to him from his superiority of intellect, proceeded by degrees to a knowledge of the other arts and sciences, and passed from a savage state of life to one of civilization.

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