THE EVOLUTION OF ARCHITECTURE. 



BY JOHN "W. CHADWICK. 



To any rational understanding of the evolution of archi- 

 tecture no one can help us less than the philosopher whose 

 name is associated with the doctrine of evolution more hon- 

 orably than any other. Mr. Spencer has written briefly of 

 the Sources of Architectural Types. The following are the 

 results which he contributes to our edification: "Build- 

 ings in the Greek and Roman style seem, in virtue of their 

 symmetry, to take their type from animal life. In the 

 partly-irregular Gothic, ideas derived from the vegetable 

 world appear to predominate. And wholly irregular build- 

 ings, such as castles, may be considered as having inorganic 

 forms for their base." Mr. Spencer has little sense of hu- 

 mor, but Sidney Smith never wrote anything funnier than 

 this. We are not told what particular animal is resembled 

 by the Parthenon. "Analogies do not go on all fours," 

 said Whately, and certainly the Parthenon does not. It is 

 more centipede than quadruped. But its sides are alike, 

 and its back and front are different. Certainly it resembles 

 a quadruped to this extent, and this is all that Mr. Spencer's 

 analogy amounts to, all that he claims. The inference that 

 the Greek went to the animal world for his architectural 

 scheme is a conjecture as absurd as that of the Christian 

 father Irenseus, to the effect that there must be four gos- 

 pels because the wind blows from four quarters. For proof 

 that castles of irregular construction are copied from " in- 

 organic forms " Mr. Spencer offers the fact or fancy that 

 the more irregular they are the better we are pleased ; and 

 that is so with inorganic forms. But is it so ? From the 

 whole range of crystalline perfection comes an emphatic 

 No. But Mr. Spencer was evidently thinking more of great 

 masses of inorganic matter, of mountain scenery. Is it true 

 of that, the more irregular the better? Or do we never tire 

 of our Monadnock's symmetry, or of such splendid cones 

 as Hood and Fusiyami lift into the upper air ? A certain 

 " protective resemblance " in castles built on cliff or crag 

 goes but a little way in proof of Mr. Spencer's generaliza- 



