320 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOE. 



they then dared to attempt the grand ; and, at last, reached the 

 sublime. 



The origin of architecture cannot be assigned to any particular 

 country. Every nation produced its own art, or style, by 

 employing the various materials within its reach, and by giving 

 to them such forms as their wants required. Proceeding at first 

 from the high table-lands of Asia, in order to people the earth, 

 the early fathers of our race could have but little idea of archi- 

 ture, or of a well-established system of construction. As wan- 

 dering and pastoral tribes, like the Hottentots of the present 

 day, they lived in tents or wretched huts, which had no preten- 

 sions to architecture. It was not until they became more 

 settled that they sought the means of rendering their buildings 

 more durable, by employing in their construction wood or 

 stone, and bricks baked in the sun. 



From the differences in the materials, and from the variety of 

 tastes and feelings, arise the varied appearances which the 

 monuments of different nations present, and which constitute 

 their peculiar style of 



architecture. Thus ^s^^90Ei^^H 



the Egyptian, born 

 in the hot climate of 

 Africa, in a country 

 destitute of wood fit 

 .for building, and near 

 the mountains of the 

 valley of the Nile, con- 

 taining large blocks of 

 freestone and granite, 

 created for himself 

 a vigorous style of 

 buildings, which com- 

 pletely sheltered him 

 from the burning raya 

 of the sun. These 

 buildings were formed 

 of colossal masses, 

 which were easily 

 transported along the 

 waters of that famous 

 river. The Greek, in- 

 habiting a milder cli- 

 mate, surrounded by 

 forests and quarries, 

 gave a lighter form 

 to his edifices, and em- 

 ployed wood in their 

 construction, which 

 harmonised well with 

 the marble a mate- 

 rial of which the fine- 

 ness admitted of a 

 greater delicacy of 



structure and arrangement. The Chinese, surrounded by rivers 

 "bordered with bamboo, had only a meagre and tortuous species 

 of architecture, as ephemeral in its duration as it was fragile in 

 its origin and construction. The very different character exhi- 

 bited in local architecture enable us to judge of a country by 

 its monuments, inasmuch as the buildings themselves are the 

 expression of the various wants of the people who constructed 

 them. It is easy to understand how their different arrange- 

 ments and structures are but the reflection of the religion or the 

 manners of the people. The general style of the monuments of 

 a, country is a durable image of the different phases of its 

 civilisation. In these, we see it in its primitive, refined, or de- 

 graded state, as civilisation arose, approached to perfection, or 

 decayed. 



Nations naturally established great divisions in their architec- 

 ture. They first built their private dwellings, then their public 

 buildings, and these, in their numerous subdivisions, constituted 

 civil architecture. Religion caused them to build temples and 

 ether edifices, attaching to them ideas of duty and moral obliga- 

 tion : thus arose sacred architecture. The fortification of their 

 frontiers, their towns, and their conquered countries, gave birth 

 .to military architecture. In this tasty sketch, we see how 

 extensive is the series of buildings which cover the face of the 

 globe, some of which belong to the first ages of its history, and 

 others of which are being re-discovered in our own day. The 



THE HUT OF THE HOTTENTOT : AN EXAMPLE OF THE PRIMITIVE ATTEMPTS 

 OF MAN TO CONSTRUCT A DWELLING. 



study of these will be duly appreciated by the historian, the 

 philosopher, the archaeologist, and the artist, who, each with his 

 own particular view, knows how to find a great lesson in these 

 silent witnesses of past civilisation, as well as in those existing 

 in full vigour around us. 



Architecture is founded upon three great principles, which 

 ought to be immutable : 1, the useful, without which states and 

 private individuals would be led into superfluous and ruinous 

 expenses ; 2, the true, because it ought to express in all its 

 varied forms the great principles of construction upon which it 

 rests ; 3, the beautiful, which is the end of all the arts depend- 

 ing upon design, and no less of architecture the most useful. 

 On these principles, every style of architecture has the samo 

 value; and an artist should not curb his genius by confining 

 himself to the study of one particular style. It is only the 

 man of talent, to whom the construction of an edifice is entrusted, 

 who can combine the different arrangements and forms, har- 

 monise the various parts, and particularly express by plans, 



skilfully worked out, 

 the disposition of the 

 whole or of every part 

 of the building. Upon 

 these arrangements 

 and plans rests the 

 reputation of an ar- 

 chitect, and science 

 demands of him a 

 well-grounded assur- 

 ance of the good con- 

 struction and dura- 

 bility of his work. 



Architecture is not 

 an imitative art, like 

 her sister arts, sculp- 

 ture and painting. 

 We see nothing in 

 nature like our build- 

 ings as a whole; or 

 rather nothing which 

 could serve to guide 

 us in its applications, 

 or in the harmony of 

 its lines. In this art, 

 man has done every- 

 thing himself. He 

 has employed matter; 

 he has invented forms 

 and proportions to 

 produce in the minds 

 of his fellow-creatures 

 ideas correlative of 

 order, harmony, gran- 

 deur, richness, and 



durability. He has been enabled, by the force of art, to give, 

 as it were, thought to matter, without being indebted for his 

 ideas to any of the external forms of nature. Like the poet 

 and the musician, the architect can transport the spectator 

 into an ideal world, by creating forms and effects formerly 

 unknown ; but, very different from them in results, he renders 

 his creations palpable, and gives them durability. Moreover, 

 the iiseful, the true, and the beautiful, must be ever present 

 to his view; and, however fruitful his imagination may be, 

 he cannot emancipate it from science, the eternal basis of all 

 the productions of his art. 



The architect should therefore spend his youth in the study 

 of his art, and of the splendid examples left on the face of 

 the old world by ancient civilisation. In conjunction with 

 these studies he should make himself master of the exact 

 sciences, in order that he may execute his plans with precision, 

 and study the nature of their construction. He should also 

 become familiar with the physical sciences, in order that he 

 may understand the nature of the materials which he must 

 some day employ, and be able to calculate their effects. In 

 short, he should devote himself to practical experience, and 

 to the working part of architecture, in order to render himself 

 capable of executing public or private buildings, and to 

 make himself responsible for the stability of edifices entrusted 

 to him. 



