ing improvements upon the first result of a combined plan of the reason and imagination, after a series of errors and accidents, a code of rules came to be established, by which the art of building has since continued to be regulated. The study of these rules furnishes a knowledge of the science of architecture.

"Although necessity was the mother of architecture, climate dictated the choice of materials employed in the construction of buildings, and chance directed the fancy of individuals in the selection of ornaments. History, in recording that Callimachus of Corinth was led to think of forming the Corinthian capital by observing the beautiful effect of a vase accidentally placed in the midst of a bunch of cellery, has furnished us with a fact which proves, although a natural law governs man in choosing the style of architecture, and climate prescribes to him the materials, that the peculiarities of individual genius, and not the effect of any general principle of taste, develops the beauties of ornament.

"Taste is formed by the contemplation of works of art, and the perfection of art consists in exhibiting the greatest degree of beauty with the utmost possible resemblance to the natural models. Taste, therefore, does not instruct us to prefer, for any general reason, any one particular style of architecture to another, but only to observe and disapprove of deviations from what is natural.

want.

"Every pleasure, after enjoyment, occasions a new The shelter and protection obtained from architecture incited man to seek enjoyments in the improvement of the art of building. When his corporeal necessities are supplied, the restlessness of his mind leads him to seek additional pleasures, by new modifications of the means which supplied his corporeal necessities.

"In the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, architecture is supposed to have first attained excellence. At least the best authors on the history of the arts agree in stat

ing, that the Doric and Ionic orders were first perfectly constructed there; and it may be questioned if, in the lapse of more than twenty centuries, any improvement has been added to the august simplicity of the Doric, or to the unaffected elegance of the Ionic column. The Corinthian, which is of much later invention, though more elaborately ornamented than the other two, is, by many of the most approved taste, deemed inferior to them as an order. It retains less of the resemblance of the original natural model. It has more about it that may be regarded as superfluous, and the foliage of the capital is obviously a redundancy placed there for no other purpose than the display of skill and expense.The Corinthian pillars of the porticos of St Paul's in London are esteemed very pure specimens of that order; but their appearance is less impressive than that of the Doric columns, which still remain among the ruins of the Temple of Minerva at Athens. More than two thousand years have elapsed, and the remnants of the Greek architecture still afford models, which, never having been equalled, seem incapable of being further improved. It may indeed be said, that the genius of ancient Greece has furnished eternal models of art as well as of literature to Europe.

"About the time that the Doric was raised to perfection in Ionia, the Etruscans invented the Tuscan, a similar order, but a grosser style; and the Romans, after the simple and dignified manners of their republic had passed away, demonstrated, by the invention of the Composite, and their preference for that gaudy order, how much the corruption of their morals had infected their taste.

"The Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite orders constitute what is properly understood by the classes of architecture. They are arranged with distinct, appropriate, and peculiar ornaments; and their

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proportions are regulated by rules which cannot be violated without impairing their beauty. This is not the case with any other kind of architecture, and hence all other modifications of the art of building are called styles, in contradistinction to orders. It is true, that in England the Society of Antiquaries, and several private amateurs of the arts, have of late endeavoured to classify and illustrate the different styles of architecture in the ancient baronial and ecclesiastical edifices of Great Britain, but the inqury has not yet terminated, although it has ascertained that the Saxon, Norman, and Gothic, or, as the latter is now perhaps properly called, the English order, have characteristics as distinct as those of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, and codes of general rules that may prove to be peculiar to each.

"The human mind has an innate disposition to admire order, and to seek pleasure by the classification of objects. Hence architecture is considered as consisting of three distinct species, civil, military, and naval. I may be justified in adding a fourth, ecclesiastical; for it is impossible to visit any part of Europe, without being convinced that the buildings consecrated to religious rites could not, without radical alterations, be applied to any other use. The cathedral, with its vast aisles, its solemn vaults, and adjoining cloisters, is as obviously constructed for a special purpose, as the fortress, the ship, or the mansion.

"Phelones, of Byzantium, about three hundred before the Christian era, composed a treatise on the engines of war and military architecture. He is, therefore, justly regarded as the father of engineers; and the principles which he is supposed to have elucidated continued to be acted upon till the invention of gunpowder. Italy, that has for so many ages been unknown as a military nation, claims, for Senmicheli of Verona, the glory of having established the principles

of the art of modern fortifications. Vauban, Pagan, Blondel, Scheither, &c. only modified his suggestions and developed his principles. History ascribes, by a kind of courtesy, the honour of inventions and discoveries to the persons who first make them public, or bring them into use. It is thus that, in naval architecture, Usoo, a Phoenician, is considered as the father of the art, because he is the first on record that navigated a canoe. But in this the courtesy of history goes too far, for Noah has certainly a superior claim, both on account of the magnitude and the purpose of his vessel. Although the Greeks excelled all the world in the beauty of their works of art, they did not furnish any treatise on the theory of architecture till after they had constructed their finest buildings. This was natural.— The rules which instruct us to produce beauties in any kind of art, must be derived from the practice of those who have previously, by the instinct of genius, produced excellent works. The rules for composing a perfect epic poem were derived from the practice of Homer, as it appeared in the Iliad. In like manner, the principles of architecture, as a science, are founded on the result, not of rules previously delivered, but of experiments; hence we are assured, that by an adherence to the rules, we shall produce the same beautiful effects as the result of the experiments from which the rules were deduced. Vitruvius was the first author who established the principles of ancient architecture; but he did not write until the finest specimens of the art had been long completed. He mentions, indeed, the names of many architects, but they were practical men-men of genius who had erected models, and thereby furnished the means of giving rules for the guidance of others.

"It is surprising, that although the work of Vitruvius is admitted by all students to be deficient, obscure,

and ill arranged, it is still the best of its kind, especially in what relates to the proper and appropriate use of the different orders. A work embracing the Saxon, Norman, and Gothic styles, in addition to the classic orders, and discriminating the uses to which they are respectively adapted, is a desideratum in the literature of Europe. In England, a work of this kind is particularly required, for the English are perhaps less than any other people of Europe, sensible or even acquainted with the proprieties of architecture. In the St Paul's of London, one of the very finest works of the moderns, and admired by the English equal to its merits, the architect has employed the gayest orders, and in their most ornamented style. The sublime magnitude of the building diminishes, at the first view, the effect of its preposterous gaudiness. It is not, till after contemplating it with relation to its uses, that we perceive how much the style of the architecture is at variance with the purpose of the fabric. Surely the flaunting luxuriance of the Corinthian and Composite orders are ill placed on a temple dedicated to the service of God, and appointed to receive the ashes of great and illustrious men. The decorum of architecture has been equally disregarded in the construction of the new theatre of Covent Garden. The portico is undoubtedly a beautiful specimen of the Grecian Doric, and as such would not have disgraced Athens itself; but the august simplicity of the Doric is as much out of place at the entrance of the playhouse, as the gaudier elegance of the Corinthian and Composite is on the church. Perhaps, if the theatre were entirely devoted to the exhibition of tragedies, the grave majesty of its portico would not be objectionable. Still, however, both the theatre and the cathedral are fine monuments of the skill of their respective architects, but they are curious examples of the want of that taste for propriety which is as requisite in the art of building