ARCHITECTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT. 197 



and both lie exposed to the sun. Through the folding-doors you 

 see the opposite chamber, and from the window is a prospect of 

 the inclosed portico. 



" On that side next the sea, and opposite to the middle wall, 

 stands a little elegant recess, which, by means of a glass door 

 and a curtain, is either laid into the adjoining room, or separated 

 from it. It contains a couch and two chairs. As you lie upon 

 this couch, from the feet you have a prospect of the sea; if you 

 look behind, you see the neighboring villas ; and from the head 

 you have a view of the woods; these three views may be seen 

 either distinctly from so many different windows in the room, or 

 blended together in one confused prospect. Adjoining this is 

 a bedchamber, which neither the voice of the servants, the mur- 

 muring of the sea, nor even the roaring of a tempest can reach ; 

 not lightning, nor the day itself, can penetrate it, unless you open 

 the windows. This profound tranquillity is occasioned by a pas- 

 sage which separates the wall of this chamber from that of the 

 garden; and thus, by means of that intervening space, every 

 noise is precluded. Annexed to this is a small stove-room, which, 

 by opening a little window, warms the bedchamber to the degree 

 of heat required. Beyond this lie a chamber and antechamber, 

 which enjoy the sun, though obliquely indeed, from the time it 

 rises till the afternoon. When I retire to this garden apartment, 

 I fancy myself a hundred miles from my own house, and take 

 particular pleasure in it at the feast of the Saturnalia, when, by 

 the license of that season of festivity, every other part of my villa 

 resounds with the mirth of my domestics; thus I neither inter- 

 rupt their diveisions nor they my studies." 



This remarkable letter was written in a civilization different 

 from ours, when society and culture were developed in another 

 spirit ; yet the principles it so clearly illustrates are as much in 

 force to-day as they were then, and the lessons it teaches as im- 

 portant to us as they were interesting and profitable to the friend 

 to whom they were addressed. It matters not that the descrip- 

 tion is of a building erected more than eighteen hundred years 

 ago, which has long since passed from the face of the earth. The 

 truths involved in its construction are as real to-day as when the 

 letter was freshly written, and, great as is its archaeological inter- 

 est, its chief merit is the admirable way in which it describes the 

 model dwelling. Pliny was not an architect, but he was a man 

 of keen observation, a student of nature, and possessed of sound 

 common sense, which he never exercised to better advantage 

 than in the erection of this building. His description shows us 

 that utility is the chief consideration, first, last, and all the time, 

 that should be observed in constructing a house. Coupled with 

 this are the conditions imposed by the environment, the taking 



