SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, 



417 



But in the highest class of certain 

 goods, such as furs, linens, tailor- 

 made gowns and suits, diamonds and 

 jewelry, porcelain and furniture, the 

 small dealer may be expected to con- 

 trol the retail trade. He alone will 

 possess the high degree of special 

 knowledge and be able to give the 

 personal attention that his business 

 requires. He alone will find it worth 

 his while to cater to the few but 

 wealthy customers that want the best 

 to be had. The department store 

 will find it more profitable, as indeed 

 it does now, to cater to the larger 



class of customers that care more for 

 cheapness than gx'eat excellence. Be- 

 cause of this fact, it is already notice- 

 able, particularly in the inland cities, 

 that specialists have begun to estab- 

 lish themselves, usually taking mod- 

 est apartments in some large com- 

 mercial building. Thus, in spite of 

 the department store and without 

 the aid of the " new " social reformer, 

 there will be preserved to the world 

 this class of people with all their 

 " manhood " and " independence," 

 thought to be so important to civili- 

 zation. 



Scientific %X\tx^Xyxxz. 



SPECIAL BOOKS. 



Among the many manuals of architecture Mr. Mathews's book* takes a 

 distinct place. It is a concise history of architectural develoxDment through 

 all the various phases of civilization, showing the important modifications 

 produced by location and national life. 



Beginning with the time when man longed for something more than 

 mere shelter and strove to make his habitation pleasing to the eye, the 

 author traces the art of construction as it was unfolded in Egypt and. 

 Nubia, India and Java, China and Japan. Then, crossing to the Western 

 hemisphere, which is never reached by some writers, he gives an outline 

 of its evolution among the Toltecs, Aztecs, and Incas. Returning to the 

 Old World, he takes up the record of the ruins in western Asia, Chaldea, 

 Assyria, and Persia. Thence the transition is easily made to Greece, 

 Etruria, and Rome; for, although there is an early period of classical 

 architecture the Pelasgic, whose Cyclopean masonry and corbeled vault- 

 ing betray no foreign influence the efflorescence of Greek art took place 

 many centuries after the Dorian invasion and subsequent to the Persian 

 conquest, when the Greeks had come into contact with many nations and 

 had assimilated whatever was of worth. They borrowed the fluted pillar 

 and molded lintel from the tombs of the Egyptians, but they increased the 

 proportional height of the column until it formed the stately Doric. The 

 colorettes of Nineveh and the Persian capitals possibly suggested the Ionic 

 order; the Greek architect, however, gave it graceful proportion. So, with 

 all the ideas that may be traced to outside sources, the beauty of the trans- 

 forming touch is clearly recognized, and it is readily acknowledged that for 

 nobility of purpose and an exquisite sense of harmony the architecture of 

 Athens is still unrivaled. " The artist bowed himself to his task w4th all 

 the unselfishness attendant on an act of worship. To look at Nature, see 



* The Story of Architecture. 

 Co. Pp. 468. Price, $3. 



VOL. LI. 32 



By Charles ThompBon Mathews, M. A. New York : D. Appleton & 



