120 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tracing the connection of the various parts with one another. A great 

 deal had recently been added to knowledge on the subject by the pub- 

 lication of special treatises in particular departments of it, and pho- 

 tography and the careful study of ancient monuments and buildings 

 had furnished means of reaching more correct conclusions. Stress was 

 laid on this last point, for so long, the author said, as our researches 

 are confined to what the ancient authors have written, "many im- 

 portant problems remain unsolved, and must ever remain as unsolvable 

 as they have hitherto proved " ; and in the countries and times to 

 which the monuments appertained, " men who had a hankering after 

 immortality were forced to build their aspirations into the walls of 

 their tombs or of their temples. Those who had poetry in their souls, 

 in nine cases out of ten expressed it by the more familiar vehicle of 

 sculpture or painting rather than in writing. To me it appears that 

 to neglect these in trying to understand the manners and customs or 

 the history of an ancient people, is to throw away one half, and gener- 

 ally the most valuable half, in some cases the whole, of the evidence 

 bearing on the subject." 



In the second edition of the " History," which was published in 

 1874, Mr. Fergusson called attention to the need of a comprehensive and 

 systematic study of American architecture, saying : " What is really 

 wanted is that some one should make himself personally acquainted 

 with all the various styles existing between the upper waters of the 

 Colorado and the Desert of Atacama to such an extent as to be able to 

 establish the relative sequence of their dates, and to detect affinities 

 when they exist, or to point out differences that escape the casual 

 observer. . . . The problem is, in fact, identical with that presented 

 to Indian antiquaries some thirty years ago. At that time we knew 

 less of the history of Indian architecture than we now know of Ameri- 

 can, but at the present day the date of every building and every cave 

 in India can be determined with absolute certainty to within fifty, or 

 at the outside one hundred, years ; the sequence is everywhere certain, 

 and all can be referred to the race and religion that practiced that 

 peculiar style. . . . What has been done for India could, I am con- 

 vinced, easily be accomplished for America, and with even more sat- 

 isfactory and more important results to the history and ethnography 

 of that great country. The subject is well worthy the attention of 

 any one who may undertake it, as it is the only means we now know 

 of by which the ancient history of the country can be recovered from 

 the darkness that now enshrouds it, and the connection of the Old 

 World with the New if any existed can be traced, but it is practi- 

 cally the only chapter in the history of architecture which remains to 

 be written." 



Mr. Fergusson had intended to include in his "History" chapters 

 on what were known as Celtic or Druidical remains. But, when the 

 subject came to be looked into, it was found that the whole was such 



