89. 

 THE BEE, 



OK 



LITERARY WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER, 



FOR 



Wednesday, August 29. 1792. 



OF TASTE IK ARCHITECTURE. 

 Continued from p. 239. 



Sir, To the Editor of the Bee. 



I HAVE fhown the progrefs of architecture from its 

 simplest forms in the infancy of society to the rude, 

 but magnificent efforts of superstition, to erect temples 

 to the invisible power of heaven ; and I now proceed 

 to consider it under the influence of vanity and os- 

 tentation in the ages of luxury and refinement. 



This last and copious subject of my efsay, natu- 

 rally divides itself into the consideration of those im- 

 provements which arose from the vanity, pride, and 

 ostentation of princes, in the erection of public edi- 

 fices, and of those which in later times have sprung 

 from the wealth of private individuals. 



In the beginning, almost all the wealth of nations 

 wi&is accumulated in the state. The nation, or, in 

 other words, the prince, was very rich, and the people 

 ■very poor ; neither commerce nor manufactures, 

 nor the plunder of provinces by rapacious governors, 



VOL. X, I. I. t 



