334 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



Among the subjects to whicli lie had given a close and critical 

 attention, was the attractive field of Architecture, both in its his- 

 torical development as a Fine-art — syml)olizing devotional senti- 

 ment, and in its later manifestations as the apjjlication of antique 

 and eclectic forms of ornamentation to utilitarian structures. His 

 very admiration of ancient classic and gothic art, made him intoler- 

 ant of the servile reproduction of Temple and Cathedral styles 

 for purposes and uses to which they were wholly unsuited.* And 

 he was severe in his criticisms on the too frequent practice of 

 wasting a large portion of the funds bequeathed to scientific, edu- 

 cational, or charitable purposes, on showy and pretentious piles, 

 (the inspiration and the monument of an ambitious architect,) to 

 the permanent spoliation and restriction of the endowment intended 

 for intellectual and moral ends. 



The Reign of Law. — Henry held very broad and decided views 

 as to the rei^n of order in the Cosmos. Defining: science as the 

 "knowledge of natural law," and law, as the "will of God," he 

 was always accustomed to regard that orderly sequence called the 

 "law," as being fixed and immutable as the omniscient providence of 

 its Divine Author : admitting in no case caprice or variableness: and 

 he would quote with expressive emphasis, Halley's classic lines, 



"Quas dum primordla rerum 



Pangeret Omniparens leges violare Creator 

 Noluit, ffiternique operls fundamina flxit." 



* "The Greek architect was untrammelled by any condition of utility. Archi- 

 tecture was with him in reality a, fine-art. The temple was formed to gratify the 

 tutelar deity. Its minutest parts were exquisitely finished, since nothing but 

 perfection on all sides and in the smallest particulars, could satisfy an all-seeing 

 and critical eye. It was intended for external worship, and not for internal 

 use. - - - The uses therefore to which in niodern times, buildings of this kind 

 can be applied, are exceedingly few. - - - Modern architecture is not like 

 painting or sculpture, a 'fine-art' j)ar excellence: the object of these latter is to 

 produce a moral emotion, to awaken the feelings of the sublime and the beau- 

 tiful: and we egregiously err when we apply these productions to a merely 

 utilitarian purpose. To make a fire-screen of Rubens" Madonna, or a candeliv 

 brum of the statue of the Apollo Belvidere, would be to debase these exquisite 

 prodlictions of genius, and do violence to the feelings of the cultivated lover of 

 art. Modern buildings are made for other j>urposes than artistic eftect, and in 

 them the a^sthotical must be subordinate to the useful; though the two may 

 co-exist, and an intellectual pleasure be derived from a sense of adaptation and 

 fitness, combined with a perception of harmony of parts, and the beauty of 

 detail. The buildings of a country and an age should be an ethnological expres- 

 sion of the wants, habits, arts, and sentiments of the time in which they were 

 erected." (Proceed. Am. Asmait Albany, Aug. I8.JU, part i. pp. 120, 121, and NmiUv- 

 sonian Report for 1850, p. 222.) 



