EVOLUTION IN ARCHITECTURE. 643 



there would appear to be no connection between a Gothic cathedral 

 and a Greek temple, beyond the facts that both were buildings of 

 stone, and both had been dedicated to religious worship ; yet that 

 one has been evolved out of the other is a matter of simple demon- 

 stration. We can supply all the links of the chain by referring to 

 . edifices still standing, the times and circumstances of the erection of 

 many of which have been detailed by the general historian. 



To find the source from which the European nations have derived 

 the art of building in stone, we must look to the land of the Pharaohs. 

 From Egypt the craft passed to Greece, and from the Greeks it was 

 taken up by the Romans, to be by them disseminated through the 

 north and west of Europe in the process of colonization. The simi- 

 larity, in regard to the constructive parts of the ancient Greek build- 

 ings to some of those found in Egypt of older date, affords strong 

 confirmation of the tradition that the Greeks borrowed the art from 

 the Egyptians. The Greeks, however, in adopting it added a new 

 feature, the pediment, and the reason for this addition is easy to find. 

 Egypt is practically rainless. All the protection from the climate re- 

 quired in a palace or temple in such a country is shelter from the sun 

 by day and from the cold by night, and for this a flat roof, supported 

 by walls, or pillars with architraves, is quite sufficient ; but, when, as 

 in all European countries, rain has to be taken into account, a slant- 

 ing roof becomes a necessity. The Greeks, with their eye for symme- 

 try, provided for this by forming the roof with a central ridge, at an 

 obtuse angle, from which it sloped down equally on either side. The 

 triangular space thus formed at the end of the building above the 

 architrave was occupied by the pediment, and this part of the facade, 

 which owed its birth to the exigencies of climate, was thenceforth 

 regarded as so essential to the artistic completeness of the work that 

 it was said that if a temple were to be erected in the celestial re- 

 gions, where rain would not be possible, the pediment could not be 

 omitted. 



Both the Egyptians and the Greeks were satisfied with bridging 

 over the openings of doors and windows, and the spaces between col- 

 umns, by means of the architrave, a mode of construction which in- 

 volved the necessity of using long blocks of stone. But the Romans, 

 whose enterprise took a wider range, were not content to labor under 

 such restrictions. In their engineering works they were familiar with 

 the principle whereby blocks of comparatively small size, arranged in 

 a semicircular form, can be made to hold together without support 

 from beneath, except at the two ends of the series, by being arranged 

 in the form of a semicircle ; and, applying this principle to architecture, 

 they not only gave to art a freedom it never before enjoyed, but con- 

 ferred on it a new element of beauty. The arch, unknown to the 

 Greeks or, if known, not made use of in their temples and employed 

 by the Romans in the first instance from utilitarian motives, has ever 



