SECTION III.

In this Section the Origin and Prgrefs of ARCHITECTURE are confidered principally. as that Science has Reference to and is connected with the aftronomical and mythological Notions of the Ancients.—In the Course of it is detailed the Hiftory of the FOUR GRECIAN ORDERS; and accurate Defcriptions are given of the most celebrated Temples of Greece, compared, in their Defigns and Symbolical Decorations, with thofe of Egypt and India.

T would be unneceffary for us to ascend

the fake of ftill farther illuftrating my affertion, relative to the wonderful feature of fimilarity, I mean in point of grandeur and form, that prevails in the ARCHITECTURE OF those two most celebrated empires of the ancient world, Egypt and India. Raised in the infancy of science, the ftupendous edifices of the Thebais have now, for above 3000 years,

years, withftood the raging elements and the violence of corroding time. Sublime in native majefty, they tower above the boldest efforts of every fucceeding race of mortals to rival them; and, while they fill us with awe and reverence, excite in us the utmost aftonishment, that it was poffible for mankind in the dawn of the arts to raise fabrics at once fo lofty and fo durable. Oriental ARCHITECTURE is deeply connected with Oriental HISTORY, fince it was an immemorial cuftom throughout all the East for the captives, taken in battle, to be employed by the victor in erecting fabrics, the fculptured walls of which recorded his triumphs, while its coftly decorations announċed to pofterity his riches and magnificence. The hieroglyphic fculptures on the fepulchral temple of Sefoftris are direct proofs of this affertion. Some of the finest edifices of Perfia were raised after the demolition of the Egyptian temples by Cambyfes. Alexander, on his return from Perfia, feems to have aimed at acquiring immortality by his ftupendous efforts in architecture; and the barbarian Timur, in later periods, enriched the imperiał city of Samarcand not lefs by the labour of Indian architects than the glittering spoils of the Indian metropolis. A retrofpective history

of

of architecture will also be useful to mark the progrefs of superstition, fince the earliest created edifices bore impreffed the marks of the reigning devotion. The fubject, generally confidered, opens a wide field for inftigation, and I fhall easily obtain the pardon of my readers for taking rather an extended review of it, for it is curious and interesting, perhaps, beyond most others in the whole range of antiquities. Let us, according to our ufual method, commence our researches at the fountain-head of information; let us. revert to periods, when as yet the cedar and the palm fecurely reared their lofty heads on the mountain, and the rude granite repofed undisturbed in the dark bofom of its native quarry.

Born in the deep fhades of the foreft, or nurfed in the dreary folitude of caverns, which formed the first human habitations, mankind originally borrowed from them the mode of conftructing houfes for themselves, and erecting temples to the Deity. When chance, or neceffity, led them from thofe lonely retreats into the open plains, they contrived huts, rudely formed of the branches of trees, of which the larger ends, fet in a circular manner into the ground, and the fuperior

fuperior extremities terminating at the top in the manner of a cone, or fugar-loaf, gave the first idea of that pyramidal form of building, which, in regard to temples, the folar fuperftition afterwards confecrated and rendered permanent and univerfal during many ages of barbarity and ignorance. Till then the human race, however exalted by the diftinguishing and godlike attribute of reafon, had not difdained to affociate with the beafts of the defert; nor did they now refufe, in the infancy of science, to receive inftruction from the provident martin, the fwallow, and other feathered tenants of the woods, from which they iffued, filling up the interftices of their brittle habitations with leaves and clay mingled together. Pliny, indeed, exprefsly affirms this of them; exemplo fumto ab hirundinum nidis ;* they copied the example of the fwallows in building their nefts.

When mankind increafed in numbers and affociated in larger bodies; when they found their flender clay-fenced tenements totally unable to refift the violence of the contending clements, beaten to pieces by the driving ftorm, or deluged by torrents of descending

* Plinii, Nat. Hift. lib. vii. cap. 56.

rain;

"

rain; they formed the plan of erecting more fubftantial fabrics, and the folid trunks of trees were, by their increafing knowledge in mechanics, torn with violence from the earth, for the purpose of constructing, for themselves, a more fecure and ample abode, as well as, for the deity, a temple fuitable to the grandeur of their conceptions concerning his nature and attributes. These unhewn blocks, arranged in long and regular rows, fustained an elevated roof compofed of fimilar blocks, placed flat upon them, and longitudinally traverfing each other. They contrived, however, in obedience to the reigning fuperftition, gradually to contract the afcending pile, and gave the fummit a pyramidal form. I am afraid that even at this day, after fo many ages have elapsed, the veftige of the firft grand fuperftition, fo general in the ancient æras of the world, is too apparent in the lofty fpires and pinnacles with which the facred edifices of Europe are decorated.

The genial warmth and nutrition bestowed by the beam of the Sun led mankind firft to adore him, not merely, I firmly believe, as the brightest of the orbs, but as the nobleft fymbol in the univerfe of that άγνωστος Θεος, that unknown God, to whom the Athenians erected

VOL. III.

I