INTRODUCTION. X\i 



on the day of her marriage, found this pre- 

 cious book on her toilet-table. The misfor- 

 tunes of the French Revolution transported 

 this interesting' monument of the gallantry of 

 the seventeenth century to Hamburgh, where 

 it was put up to sale in the year 1795; but the 

 purchaser of this combination of poetry and 

 painting is not known. 



The decorative parts of architecture were 

 originally derived from flowers and plants. 

 The Lotus flower presents us with a model of 

 the principal embellishment of Indian build- 

 ings, and the palm-tree seems to have given 

 the first idea of columns to the ancients. 

 Hiram ornamented the capitals of the cele- 

 brated pillars which he wrought for Solomon 

 with Lilies and Pomegranates. The Corin- 

 thian capital is stated to have been first in- 

 vented by Callimachus, a famous architect, 

 who, being engaged to make some pillars at 

 Corinth, took the form of his enrichment from 

 the following accidental circumstance : — Pass- 

 ing a basket, covered with a large tile, that 

 had been placed on the ground over a root 

 of Acanthus, the stalks and leaves of which 



