226 THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS' NESTS. 



of trees. The pyramids might have been built by an 

 indigenous race, but not the temples of El Uksor and 

 Karnak. In Grecian architecture, almost every char- 

 acteristic feature can be traced to an origin in wooden 

 buildings. The columns, the architrave, the frieze, the 

 fillets, the cantelevers, the form of the roof, all point 

 to an origin in some southern forest-clad country, and 

 strikingly corroborate the view derived from philology, 

 that Greece was colonised from north-western India. 

 But to erect columns and span them with huge blocks 

 of stone or marble, is not an act of reason, but one 

 of pure unreasoning imitation. The arch is the only 

 true and reasonable mode of covering over wide spaces 

 with stone ; and therefore, Grecian architecture, how- 

 ever exquisitely beautiful, is false in principle, and is 

 by no means a good example of the application of 

 reason to the art of building. And what do most of 

 us do at the present day but imitate the buildings of 

 those that have gone before us ? We have not even 

 been able to discover or develop any definite style of 

 building best suited for us. We have no characteristic 

 national style of architecture, and to that extent are 

 even below the birds, who have each their characteristic 

 form of nest, exactly adapted to their wants and habits. 



Birds do Alter and Improve their Nests when altered 

 Conditions require it. 



The great uniformity in the architecture of each 

 species of bird which has been supposed to prove a 

 nest-building instinct, we may, therefore, fairly impute 



