222 ACOUSTICS APPLIED TO PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 



of buildings bearing upon tliis point, which, though they may not 

 meet with universal acceptance, will, I trust, commend themselves to 

 the common sense of the public in general. 



In the erection of a building, the uses to which it is to be applied 

 should be clearly understood and provision definitely made in the 

 original plan for every desired object. 



Modern architecture is not, like painting or sculpture, a fine art 

 par excellence ; the object of these latter is to produce a moral emo- 

 tion, to awaken the feelings of the sublime and the beautiful, and we 

 egregiously err when we apply their productions to a merely utilita- 

 rian purpose. To make a fire screen of Rubens's Madonna, or a can- 

 delabrum of the statue of the Apollo Belvidere, would be to debase 

 these exquisite productions of genius, and do violence to the feelings 

 of the cultivated lover of art. Modern buildings are made for other 

 purposes than artistic effect, and in them the assthetical must be sub- 

 ordinate to the useful, though the two may coexist, and an intellectual 

 pleasure be derived from a sense of adaptation and fitness, combined 

 Vith a perception of harmony of parts^ and the beauty of detail. 



The buildings of a country and an age should be an ethnological 

 expression of the wants, habits, arts, and sentiment of the time in 

 which they were erected. Those of Egypt, Greece, and Rome were 

 intended, at least in part, to transmit to posterity, without the art of 

 printing, an idea of the character of the periods in which they were 

 erected. It was by their monuments that these nations sought to con- 

 vey an idea of their religious and political sentiments to future ages. 



The Greek architect was untrammelled by any condition of utility. 

 Architecture was with him in reality a fine art. The temple was 

 formed to gratify the tutelar deity. Its minutest parts were exquisitely 

 finished, since nothing but perfection on all sides, and in the smallest 

 particulars, could satisfy an all-seeing and critical eye. It was in- 

 tended for external worship, and not for internal use. It was without 

 windows, entirely open to the sky, or, if closed with a roof, the light 

 was merely admitted through a large door. There were no arrange- 

 ments for heating or ventilation. The uses, therefore, to which, in 

 modern times, buildings of this kind can be applied, are exceedingly 

 few ; and though they were objects of great beauty, and fully realized 

 the intention of the architect by whom they were constructed, yet 

 they cannot be copied in our day without violating the principles 

 which should govern architectural adaptation. 



Every vestige, of ancient architecture which now remains -on the 

 face of the earth should be preserved witli religious care ; but to ser- 

 vilely copy these, and to attempt to apply them to the uses of our day, 

 is as preposterous as to endeavor to harmonize the refinement and 

 civilization of the present age with the superstition and barbarity of 

 the times of the Pharaohs. It is only when a building expresses the 

 dominant sentiment of an age, when a perfect adaptation to its use is 

 joined to harmony of proportions and an outward expression of its 

 character, tliat is entitled to our admiration. It has been aptly said, 

 that it is one thing to adopt a particular style of architecture, but a 

 very different one to adapt it to the purpose required. 



Architecture should change not only with the character of the peo- 



