238 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Namour, had been fortified by carpenters, by means of palisades, and 

 when the Romans attempted to take them by storm, supposing them 

 to be an easy prey, the war-engines of those carpenters hurled them 

 more than once from the top of their ramparts, where they died, at 

 last, like true heroes, for freedom and independence. 



The most astonishing progress made by carpentry in ancient times 

 is, in our estimation, that shown by Holland. There man had struggled 

 for ages against the invading waves for the ownership of a land which, 

 in the end, he succeeded in making his own. " Twice a day," the old- 

 est legends tell us, " the ocean extended its empire over the shore 

 with terrible rage, and rose as high as the level of the wooden houses 

 built on immense piles of wood, at considerable distance inland, so that 

 they seemed to float above the water, and their trembling inhabitants 

 could not move around except in boats." This gives an idea how the 

 dwellings of the Hollanders were built, and is an unquestionable token 

 of their skill, as the work of building houses on the sand, supported 

 on piers, and capable of resisting the enormous tides that visit the 

 country, was by no means an easy task; yet they performed still more 

 surprising works : they laid the foundations of those dikes that are 

 reckoned among the greatest works of any description ever accom- 

 plished by man. 



As has been stated above, in Italy, since the time when Rome was 

 at the height of its glory, masonry, in domestic building, had taken 

 the place of carpentry. But, with the downfall of the empire, when, 

 society being upset, no one could trust in the morrow, and the execu- 

 tion of works which demanded peace and length of time to be accom- 

 plished became impossible, carpentry recovered its power ; again it 

 controlled architecture and its sister arts, and again it supplied the 

 needs of the barbarians in the savage manner of which it had been 

 formerly divested by civilization. As truly as an epoch of the past 

 can be revived, the primeval ages were called to new life, and with 

 them the primitive systems of construction. Nor could it be other- 

 wise : the savage hordes who now overran Europe felt, thought, acted, 

 and lived as the hordes who had preceded them centuries before. For- 

 tunately, their destructive work did not last long, nor could it extin- 

 guish entirely the light that civilization had cast over the land. The 

 conquering races passed away, leaving after them only their good ele- 

 ments the industrial and agricultural classes which settled and amal- 

 gamated with the indigenes. Carpentry was then called upon to supply 

 new wants. The new religion had grown and spread over the world ; 

 it needed oratories and temples ; it needed belfries in order that the 

 scattered faithful might hear from afar the consoling sounds which 

 called them to worship. Primitive Christians were neither rich enough, 

 nor sure enough of meeting with tolerance, to undertake the erection 

 of stone buildings. Carpentry supplied their moderate needs. The 

 oldest basilicas were all of wood in the style of that of St. Martin on 



