ARCHITECTURE. 



preserve them unimpaired by the hand of 

 ignorant barbarism, so peculiar to Mus- 

 selfnen and Frenchmen : for which his 

 zeal and judgment, in literally robbing a 

 church, lias received the warmest ac- 

 knowledgments of the British artists, who 

 still sutler him to keep an Italian merce- 

 nary in Greece, destroying and pilfering 

 what is termed the " Elgin Marbles." 



Such inconsiderate love of the arts, con- 

 trasted with the laudable exertions of the 

 scientific Stuart, is truly disgusting. This 

 ingenious traveller was indefatigable in 

 drawing, measuring, and accurately de- 

 scribing these interesting works of anti- 

 quity, and devoted seven years in the ac- 

 complishment of a work that does honour 

 to the British arts, by transmitting to 

 posterity the genius and taste of the 

 Greeks, under the influence of Pericles 

 and Adrian; in the perusal of whose 

 pages we may exclaim, "There was a 

 time, when Greece, when Athens, existed : 

 now neither is there an Athens in Greece, 

 nor is Greece itself any longer to be 

 found." And when we search forarchitec- 

 ture, we may find it buried in its own ruins. 



The Romans were humble copiers of 

 Greek Architecture in every thing but 

 its simplicity; they laboured in compli- 

 cated forms, and dressed out the chaste 

 orders into unmeaning frivolities. Columns 

 vere coupled, and piled on columns, 

 enormous basements were erectedon the 

 tops of Porticoes, crushing all beneath 

 with the superincumbent weight, plane 

 surfaces were intersected with fluted 

 pilasters, and the intermediate space filled 

 up, and enriched with tablets of fes- 

 toons, and perforated with stories of small 

 windows. 



The Romans acquired all their know- 

 ledge of the arts by the prowess of their 

 arms ; and, not possessing any native taste, 

 acquired by the unremitting attempts of 

 rival artists, they could not be supposed 

 to select the most chaste features, but 

 eagerly seized upon the Corinthian, be- 

 ing the most sumptuous of the Greek 

 orders, and applied it in their public 

 buildings, almost to the total exclusion of 

 all others, inventing an order still more 

 rich and profuse, called the Composite, 

 which is compounded of the Corinthian 

 leaves, surmounted by the Ionic Echinus 

 and Volutes. 



The edifices erected during the repub- 

 lican state of the country are known by 

 their simplicity and usefulness, while 

 those of the emperors are remarkable for 

 ornament The emperor Adrian jour- 

 neyed over all Uis provinces, building and 



restoring cities and public edifices. AJ 

 Athens he built the immense Temple of 

 Jupiter Olympus, repaired the gates of 

 the city, which by inscription he claimed 

 as his own. He built the aqueducts that 

 supplied the city of Corinth with water, 

 and the great wall across the Island of 

 Great Britain, from New-Castle to Carlisle. 



The emperor Augustus said he found 

 Rome composed of brick, but he had., 

 changed it into marble. Among the 

 numerous edifices constructed during his 

 reign were, the Temple and Forum of 

 Mars the avenger ; Jupiter Tonans in the 

 capital pantheon, dedicated to all the 

 gods; and a temple to Minerva composed 

 entirely of brass ; and he brought the 

 Aqua Virginia to Rome through an aque- 

 duct 14 miles in length. 



Dioclesian reared the stately Corinthian 

 in the ancient city of Tedmor in the 

 wilderness, built by Solomon, and called 

 by the Romans Palmyra. 



Throughout the Roman dominions the 

 Corinthian was the prevailing order. The 

 Ionic appears to have been the favourite 

 order in Asia Minor ; the Corinthian in 

 the colonies of Rome ; and the sober 

 Doric every where the most ancient and 

 lasting of them all. 



At Palmyra and Balbec their rectangu- 

 lartemples are very extraordinary in point 

 of extent; and the superb style of deco- 

 ration to which their arts were carried 

 the immense size of the materials in the 

 temple at Balbec ; is perhaps greater 

 than any employed in Egypt. In the 

 quarry without the walls of the city lies 

 a stone 70 feet in length, and 14 feet 

 square, in the shape of a parallelopipedon, 

 containing 14,128 cubic feet, and weigh- 

 ing upwards of 1130 tons. 



Although the Romans can claim but 

 little merit of originality in what relates 

 to civil architecture, the modern world is 

 very much indebted to them for a very 

 important feature in the science of build- 

 ing: that is, the invention of the arch, 

 which was entirely unknown to the 

 Greeks previous to the Roman con- 

 quest. The utility and grandeur of this 

 important invention is fully demonstrated 

 in the extensive vaults, domes, bridges, 

 and aqueducts, with which their most su- 

 perb edifices were constructed and adorn- 

 ed, the judicious arrangement of which 

 never fails to produce the most pleasing 

 effects, particularly when constructed on 

 an extended span. 



The profuse introduction of arches in 

 the facades of edifices generally destroys 

 the effect of other features, composed of 



