1867.] Architecture or the Science of Building. 507 



this may be, it appears from the very names of the three principal 

 orders of architecture, that the invention if not perfection of them 

 is to be ascribed to Greece, and that it was she who prescribed the 

 rules and supplied the models of them. As much may be said with 

 regard to all the other arts, and almost all the sciences. It is a 

 great misfortune that there is nothing of this science by the Greeks 

 now extant. "We must learn its principles not from their books 

 but the structures of their ancient masters still subsisting, whose 

 beauty, universally acknowledged, has for almost two thousand years 

 been the admiration of all good judges. These monuments of their 

 skill, and taste, have abundantly proved themselves not the fruits of 

 capricious fashion and fancy, but have their origin in the principles 

 of a profound philosophy. The occasion there was for erecting dif- 

 ferent sorts of buildings, made artists also establish different propor- 

 tions, in order to have such as were proper for every kind of struct- 

 ure, according to the magnitude, strength, splendor and beauty they 

 wished to give them. From these different proportions, were com- 

 posed different orders. Order as a term of architecture signifies the 

 different ornaments, measures and proportions of the columns and 

 pilasters, which support or adorn great buildings. The Grecian 

 orders were three in number, the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. — 

 These may with propriety be called the perfection of the orders, as 

 they embrace all that is fine, as well as all that is necessary in the 

 art ; there being only three ways of building, the solid, the middle 

 and the delicate, which are all perfectly executed in these three orders. 

 The Latins added two others, the Tuscan and Composite orders. — 

 That which is remote from the ancient proportions, and is loaded 

 with chimerical ornaments, is called Gothic, and was brought by 

 the Goths from the north. There are two species of Gothic archi- 

 tecture ; the one ancient the other modern. The edifices built in the 

 ancient Gothic manner were massy, heavy and gross; the modern 

 more delicate easy and light. All the ancient Cathedrals and most 

 of the modern are Gothic in their Architecture. These various 

 orders form the basis of all that is truly magnificent, classical and 

 chaste in building at the present time, and so far as there is a depart- 

 ure from the proportions followed in these orders, it is an offense to 

 the eye of reason and taste, for these very proportions are all found- 

 ed in the natural beauty and fitness of things. 



To us there is nothing more attractive than models of style in 

 architecture. What a relief after viewing an unsightly structure, 



