RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 381 



Athens, which still remain in a sufficient degree of pre- 

 servation to bear ample testimony to the high state of 

 architectural art among the Greeks. The best works of 

 that period are always characterized by 7inity and sim- 

 plicity, and in them an exquisite proportion is united with 

 a chasteness of decoration, which stamps them perfect 

 works of art. Each of the five orders was so nicely 

 determined by their profound knowledge of the harmony 

 of forms, and admirably executed, that all modern attempts 

 at improving them have entirely failed, for they are, indi- 

 vidually, complete models. 



■ — " First unadorned 



And nobly phiin, the manly Doric rose ; 



The Ionic then with decent matron grace 



Her airy pillar heaved : luxuriant last 



The rich Corinthian spread her wanton wreath." 



A single or double portico of columns supporting a lolty 

 pediment, the latter connected with the main body of the 

 building, which in most cases was a simple parallelogram, 

 were the characteristic features of the pure Grecian archi- 

 tecture. And this very simplicity of form, united with 

 the chasteness of decoration and elegance of propcn-tion, 

 enhanced greatly the beauty of the Grecian temple as a 

 whole. 



To the scholar and the man of refined and cultivated 

 mind, the associations connected with Grecian architecture 

 are of the most delightful character. They transport him 

 back, in imagination, to the choicest days of classic litera- 

 ture and art, when the disciples of the wisest and best of 

 Athens listened to eloquent discourses that were daily 

 delivered from her grove-embowered porticoes. When 

 lier temples were designed by a Phidias, and her architeo 



