252 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



July. 



pillais, arches, temples, luiving no assignable use, and built merely as 

 "examples." All these are what are vulgarly called "follies," and 

 deserve no more respect than the tower on Shooter's Hill. The 

 ancients never raised monuments; they never "realized examples," 

 they never built for display alone ; and it was from its connection with 

 actual life that every ancient work of art acquired its vitality. 



In copying any Grecian tem])le, however beautiful, and calling it a 

 Christian church, we depart still more widely from the practice of the 

 ancients. The}- never imagined that a restoration of a building which 

 did not belong to them was productive of " perfect beauty." lu fact, 

 such an epithet, as applied to any building, must be erroneous. Ar- 

 chitecture is not an imitation of nature. All the forms of architecture 

 are conventional; it is therefore an art of which the objects do not 

 ■admit of abstract perfection. Buildings are capable of as many va- 

 rieties of perfection as of destination; each may be perfect in its kind, 

 if it is perfectly suited to its end. But therefore it follows as a neces- 

 sary consequence, that it is impossible to transfer its merit to an " ex- 

 ample," erected for another purpose, amongst other people, and in 

 another climate : the more the imitation is " correct," the more is its 

 application falsified by its original character. 



Any system of encouragement for the arts which inculcates, that 

 perfection is to be attained by compelling the artist to "faithful imi- 

 tations," is the bane of all talent. The ancient architects never 

 "copied" or "restored" the structures of the stranger. They knew 

 better. Let us attend to the lessons given by those who have attained 

 the highest station in the art. It was from the banks of the Nine 

 that the gifted Greeks recei\'ed their art and knowledge ; but they in- 

 stantly surpassed the jjreceptors who taught them the basis of the art, 

 to which their taste and talent, adapting it to their own purposes, gave 

 a beauty, unknown before. Grecian genius refused to reconstruct 

 exact imitations of the majestic temjdes of Egypt in honour of the 

 Hellenic deities. They did not place their gods in the adyts of Isis 

 and Osiris. — The acanthus twined around the capita! which had been 

 shaded by the branches of the date tree ; new elegance was given to 

 the spirals of the volute ; beams of olive crossed the cell instead of 

 the transverse blocks of massy granite. Relieved from the superin- 

 cumbent weight, the entire frame of the structure sprang up more 

 lightly. The columns diminished in diameter; the architrave ceased 

 to retain a useless solidity; acroteria ranged upon the roof, unknown 

 in the land where the rain of hea\en does not fall. The scnlptured 

 pediments terminated the retpiired covering and decked the front : and 

 the hea^■y magnificence of Thebes was lost in the graceful splendour 

 of the Athenian Parthenon. 



Whether inherited from their Tuscan ancestors or discovered bv 

 their own science, the Romans possessed the art of turning the arch. 

 They had a full perception of the beauties of Grecian architectuie then 

 existing in unimpaired perfection. They justly appreciated its excel- 

 lence, but they never built copies or " examples" of Grecian buildings. 

 Following the faith of Greece, they bore away the statues of her gods; 

 but they did not enshrine their Jupiter within the Doric columns of 

 Athens; they did not enter the Forum beneath the Propylea, nor did 

 they copy the Parthenon upon the proiul Capitoline. I'lie art which 

 they had learnt, they put in practice with good sense and ju'udence. 

 Possessed of a new power, of which their teachers were ignorant, they 

 applied it with boldness. The huge dome of the Pantheon swelled 

 behind the Corinthian portico ; fretted vaults took their span over the 

 triumphal train; arch rose upon arch in the eternal amphitheatre; 

 and though the relationshij) was not disowned, still every feature of 

 Grecian architectin-e received a new character in imperial Rome. 



Amidst the ruins of Rome the great Italian architects formed their 

 taste. They studied the relics of ancient grandeur with all the dili- 

 gence of enthusiasm ; they measured the proportions, and drew the 

 details, and modelled the members. But when their artists were em- 

 ployed by the piety or nuignificence of the age, they never "restored" 

 the " examples" by which they were surrounded, and which were the 

 subjects of their habitual study — No! they turned them to abetter 

 Tise. Crude imitation was disdained by this energetic and intelligent 

 race. They felt aud understood the beauties of the ancient style ; 

 and causing the elements to enter into another combination, a new 

 style was created, which, considered in relation to its intention and 

 employment, possesses transcendent excellence. Retaining the same 

 aliinity to the Roman style which the latter bears to the Grecian, it 

 lias all the merit of inventiun, and all the bea\ity of propriety ; and 

 the Pantheon, high in mid air, was expanded into a cathedral worthy 

 of the supremacy assumed by the pontiH; who claimed to be the 

 primate of the world. 



It was thus that the greatest impulse was given to national genius 

 in those countries where architecture became an inventive, intellectual 

 art. The architects did not linger in contemplation of their prede- 

 cessors ; former generations had advanced, and they proceedecl, ^'o 



style or structure was held up as a perfect model, or propounded as 

 a test. It was their desire to excel by the mixed exercise of judg- 

 ment and invent ion. Selecting from the skill of past ages the ideas 

 best suited to the present, they felt that it was their calling to adapt 

 their art to the wants and feelings of society. It was thus that their 

 structures accjuired the charm that we would vainly attem])t to impart 

 to cold and corpse-like restorations. Original design will never be 

 fostered if artists are taught to defend themsehes by |)recedents. 

 Those who seek to distinguisli themselves by the practice of this, the 

 finest of the fine arts, should not lose the benefit derived from ex- 

 perience. The noble writer who is at once the warmest and most 

 learned admirer of Grecian architecture, will best instruct them how 

 to profit by the contemplation of its excellence. "These models 

 should be imitated not with the timid and servile hand of a copyist; 

 but their beauties should be transferred to our soil, preserving at the 

 same time a due regard to the changes of customs and manners, to 

 the difference of our climate, and to the condition of modern society. 

 Li this case it would not be so much the details of the edifice itself, 

 however perfect, which ought to engross the attention of the artist, 

 but he should strive rather to possess himself of the spirit and genius 

 by which it was originally jilanned aud directed, and to acquire those 

 just principles of tasle which are capable of general application." 

 The British architects of the present day are equally distinguished by 

 their genius and their industry ; no climate, however remote, has 

 escaped their researclies; no toils or dangers are shunned when in- 

 formation and knowledge are to be obtained. The progress of all the 

 mechanical arts has given unexampled means of execution; and the 

 roused spirit of the country will soon furnish them with sufficient em- 

 ployment. Thinking as the ancients would have done, they will not 

 copy antiquity, but they will emulate and share its lasting glorj'. 



We might have terminated this article by making some remarks 

 upon the churches and other buildings which are now constructing in 

 our modern Babylon. It is hardly necessaiy to observe that the 

 greater jiart of these edifices do not please us, and that we consider 

 them as liable to censures and objections. But upon consideration we 

 found that we could not dare to criticise. "Taste" — we dislike the 

 word, but we can find no other- — -proceeds upon principles which are 

 so uncertain that mere theorists like ourselves must not be allowed to 

 trifle with the reputation of professional men, whose bread depends 

 U])on their exertions. We are therefore silent where a loose or hasty 

 observation of ours might inflict a lasting injury ; and whatever aft'ec- 

 tion we may feel towards the "pointed style," we will never allow 

 our love for lancet arches to become the means of wounding the feel- 

 ings of the architect who has the misfortune to be equally enamoured 

 «ith entablatures. 



When the fine arts really exert a profitable influence, they act by 

 increasing those sources of reasonable pleasure by wdiich the mind is 

 neither degraded, nor enfeebled, nor depraved. That the love of the 

 fine arts may be made to produce a most beneficial effect, camiot be 

 doubted ; for there can be no greater source of good, both to the indi- 

 vidual and to the species, than the multiplication of such gratifications 

 as are attainable without diminishing the hajtpiness of ovu' fellow- 

 creatures. But when the fine arts are allowed in any manner to be- 

 come the subjects of rancour or detraction, then the honour which 

 they possess is lost. The jiroductions of Phidias or of Raphael be- 

 come despicable if they tend to increase the causes of contention. 

 Unfortunately we are furnished with too many reasons for nmtual 

 hostility arising out of important matters. Whether this warfare 

 might not be easily diminished it is not our business to inquire ; Init at 

 all events let us avoid imitating children — let us not quarrel and fight 

 about our gaudes and toys. 



EXCAVATIONS ON THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM 

 RAILWAY. 



Sir, — In the last number of your Journal I observed an extract from 

 Roscoe's history of the London and Birmingham Railway, gi^ ing an 

 account of a new method of working excavaticms, the invention of Mr. 

 Joseph Thornton, one of the contractors, which is mentioned as having 

 been first tried under my direction. I shall be obliged by your stating 

 in your next number, that the engineer of the works at that time was 

 Mr. Edward Dinn, and that when I succeeded him, I found the jn-ocess 

 in full operation, Y'our obedient servant, 



ROBEET B. DOCKBAY. 



JBiimhtgham, June 21| 1839, 



