LESSONS IN ARCHITECTURE. 



<>NS IN AKOHITBOTUEK,-Jt 



l;l ll.i.!',..s IN UNHKWN HTONI. 



Wx will now proceed to traco briefly but ilitinctly tho progrM* 



of architecture amougtit tho different nations of antiq . 



tho purpOHO of readmit our own timea in chronological I.I-.I.T 



:ntf into dutuila, we may point out the pa. 

 feature* which characterise the grand perioda of toe art, and 

 the different ayatems in which ita resources were developed in 

 order to satiny tho numeroua demanda of the civilisation 111 

 which it originated. 



Arohitooture, like all tho productiona of the human mind, 



The aimplioity of the first erection* for religion* purpoM* may 

 beaeraiatheooutruotionof the alUnof eariytimen. Tbefint 

 aacrifioea, which the Bible and ancient tradition traoe op to the 

 creation, were Bud* upon oonaecratod heap* of atone*, which 

 were collected upon high placea. Th*** fint alUra, called 

 BETH-CL (the House of God), were erected in Chaldea, in Judea, 

 and m Egypt They war* built, according to the Scriptures, of 

 atone* without cement, if the place* where they war* raised 

 afforded proper material*. In other place* they wen constructed 

 of turf and earth, where the plain country presented no tolid 

 material*. Such erection* or mound* are found in Afi Minor 

 and in India; at Heliopolis, celebrated for the worship of th 





DRTTTDICAL REMAINS ON THB PLAIN OF CARNAC, IN THK DEPARTMENT Of KORBIHAN. TBAXO 



at first only simple rudiment*, quite in accordance with 

 primitive manners. From the earliest ages wo find three great 

 divisions established amongst all nations : first, private buildings ; 

 secondly, religious edifices ; and thirdly, military constructions 

 of a defensive character. 



The first care of a people, as we remarked before, would be 

 to construct individual habitations ; but being at first hunters 

 and shepherds, they would be necessarily wanderers, and their 

 dwellings would bo tents constructed of the skins of animals, or 

 cottages made of branches of trees. When they dwelt on tho 

 borders of rivers they would employ reeds ; Asia and Egypt 

 present us with examples of this kind. In some exceptional 

 cases they dwelt in caverns, or in shallow excavations. The 

 cottages were usually circular; piles of stones and earth, arranged 

 in a- circle, constituted their foundation. This form is found 

 amongst all nations ; that of tho square, requiring more compli- 

 cated combinations, was not adopted at first. 



VOL. L 



sun, and the great sidereal divinity of the Syrians. Lncian 

 (loHoribes a throne or altar to the snn composed of four great 

 stones arranged in the form of a table. At Ortosia, in Syria, 

 there is an edifice of this kind raised in an open enclosure, and 

 built of stones in a square form. Strabo relate* that, travelling 

 in Egypt, he saw his road covered with temple* deroted to the 

 god Mercury, which were composed of two unhewn atone*, which 

 supported a third, resembling the cromlechs which are to be 

 soon in some parts of England. Artemidorns, quoted by StraHo, 

 mentions that in Africa, near Carthage, the god Melkart (Moloch), 

 or the Phoenician Hercules, was worshipped in a similar manner 

 three or four stones being placed one upon another in the font 

 of a rnde altar or table. 



This simple manner of building applied to primitive alters, and 

 to the sacred enclosures which surrounded them, after having 

 been developed, as we have seen, in Asia and Africa, extended 

 into Europe from the borders of the Black Sea and the Caucasus, 



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