WHAT IS AN ARCHITECT?

The Rev. J. Jessopp tells the following anecdote: 
The late Mr. Alexander, the eminent architect, was under cross-examination at Maidstone, by Sergeant, afterward Baron, Garrow, who wished to detract from the weight of his testimony and, after asking him what was his name proceeded: "You are a builder, I believe?" 
 

"No, Sir, I am not a builder; I am an architect." 

"They are much the same, I suppose?" 

"I beg your pardon, Sir, I cannot admit that; I consider them to be totally different." 

"Oh, indeed! Perhaps you will state wherein this great difference exists?" 

"An Architect, Sir," replied Mr. Alexander, "conceives the design, prepares the plan, draws out the specifications - in short, supplies the mind; the builder is merely the bricklayer or the carpenter. The builder, in fact, is the machine; the architect the power that puts the machine together and sets it going." 

"Oh, very well, Mr. Architect, that will do. And now, after your very ingenious distinction without a difference, perhaps you can inform the court who was the architect of the Tower of Babel?" 

The reply, for promptness and wit is not to be rivaled in the whole history of rejoinder,
"There was no architect, Sir, and hence the confusion."

The New York Times
Published: November 19, 1882
- Copyright-The New York Times