On the Fine Aris. 85 
have of late endeavoured to classify and illustrate the dif- 
ferent styles of architecture which are found in the ancient 
baronial and ecclesiastical edifices of Great Britain: but the 
inquiry has not yet terminated ; although it has ascertained 
that the Saxon, Norman, and Gothic; or, as the latter is now 
perhaps properly called, the English style, have charac- 
teristics as distinct as those of the Doric, Ionic, and Corin- 
thian, and codes of general rules that may prove to be 
peculiar to each, 
The human mind has an innate disposition to admire 
order, and to seek pleasure by the classification of objects. 
Hence architecture is considered as consisting of three di- 
Stinct species, civil, military, and naval. I may be justified 
in adding a fourth, ecclesiastical ; for it is impossible to visit 
any part of Europe without being convinced that the 
buildings consecrated to religious rites cou'd not without 
radical alterations be applied to any other use. The ca- 
thedral with its vast ailes, its solemn vaults, and adjoining 
cloisters.is as obviously constructed for a special purpose, 
as the fortress, the ship, or the mansion. 
Felones of Byzantium about three hundred years before 
the Christian zera composed a treatise on the engines of 
war and military architecture. He is therefore justly re- 
garded as the father of engineers, and the principles which 
he is supposed to have elucidated continued to be acted 
upon under various modifications till the invention of gun- 
powder. Italy, that has for so many years been unknown 
as a military nation, claims for Yanmicheli of Verona the 
glory of having established the principles of the art of 
modern fortification. Vauban, Pagan, Blondel, Scheiter, 
&c. only modified his suggestions and developed his prin- 
ciples. History ascribes by a kind of courtesy the honour 
of inventions and discoveries to the persons who first make 
them public, or bring them into use. It is thus that in 
naval architecture Usoo a Phoenician is considered as the 
father of the art, because he is the first on record that na- 
vigated acanoe. But in this the courtesy of history goes 
too far; for Noah has certainly a superior claim both on 
account of the magnitude and the purpose of his vessel. 
_ Although the Grecks excelled all the world iv the beauty 
of their works of art, they did not furnish any treatise on 
the theory of architecture till after they had constructed 
their finest buildings. This was natural. The rules which 
instruct us to produce beauties in any kind of art, must be 
derived from the practice of those who have previously by 
the instinct of genius produced excellent works. ‘The se 
F3 or 
