144 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[May, 



Fergusson discovers a strikinar likeness to that of Assyria; 

 and he urges the stiulv of the antiquities of Assyria and Etruria, 

 as a means of mutual ehicidation. On every ground of art and 

 arclueology, however, the study of Etruscan antiquities is valuable 

 and interesting. 



The Fifth, and last Chapter of the volume as yet published, 

 refers to Rome; and we think it needful to point out that Mr. Fer- 

 gusson breathes as bitter a hatred of the Romans and all belong- 

 ing to them, as he does a strong love for Greece and all that is 

 Greek. The latter he looks ui)on as examples of what is to be fol- 

 lowed; the former, of what is to be shunned. Of course, he has 

 to deprecate the strong prejudices in favour of Rome; but we 

 think his prejudices go as far the other way. He draws, there- 

 fore, a most unfair picture of education in England and abroad; 

 and by too great violence misses the opportunity of giving useful 

 advice. 



As soon as a boy can spell short words in his own tongue, says 

 our writer, he is sent to school to learn Latin; and from that hour 

 till he leaves the university, nothing is dinned into his ears but 

 Roman worth, Roman greatness, and Roman glory. Their learn- 

 ing, a low copy of that of (ireece, is held up before his eyes as the 

 richest and noblest the world has brought forth: the writers of his 

 own people are kept from him; and the Christian faith still more 

 carefully kept in the background, lest it should hinder his classical 

 studies, — though these are avowedly as useless as they would be 

 hurtful were it tried to carry them out Tliey are, however, only 

 learned to be forgotten, and the worst effect with us is lost time 

 and misdirected ingenuity. 



The above picture shows how passion may bewilder even the 

 sharpest-sighted men, for hardly a word of it is true, and it will 

 not fit England, France, or Germany. Latin is, it is true, taught — 

 but so is Greek ; the later writers are not unread, and no one can 

 think but that theological teaching bears by far too great a share 

 in the teaching of the English schools at any rate. The chui-ch 

 catechism is a part of the examination for graduates, and men of 

 bright minds have been plucked for giving answers in it, though 

 witli the right meaning, not in the very words. 



AV'e do not understand Mr. Fergusson to ask for the outlawry 

 of Greek from the schools, but that it should be upheld; yet all 

 that he says against Latin will tell as strouirly against it — nay, 

 it will tell against Hebrew and the Bible. "Neither an hereditary 

 monarchy nor Christianity formed any part of the institutions of 

 Rome" — forsooth, neither did they of the Jews, Greeks, nor of 

 our forefathers: indeed, such a ban would outlaw the learning 

 of the world, and bring orthodox books within a narrower list 

 than the ImUw Exjiurgatoriiis of the Vatican. The Bible, Ho- 

 mer, and Shakspeare all fall before such a sweeping law. 



Scarcely less wild is the attempt to put to the account of the 

 Latin classics, the various events of the French revolution; the 

 good of which Mr. Fergusson sets aside, and the evil he exagge- 

 rates. We should say nothing about this, but in fairness to our 

 readers we are bound to do so; for when a writer shows his weak- 

 ness in such set sliape, it is a warning against trusting him too far 

 on other grounds. Many, too, will take the hint from his histori- 

 cal wanderings, to withstand his teachings on art. 



Had Mr. Fergusson recommended the preference of Greek 

 writers over those of Rome, he would have lieen consistent with 

 himself, and done some good, for surely it is better to begin with 

 the Iliad instead of the Eneid, as much as it is better to begin 

 drawing from the round instead of copying from an engraving. 

 As, too, the great purpose of classical studies in education is not 

 to give immediate instruction, but to train the mind in habits of 

 application and hard work, — and for which classical studies have 

 advantages, peculiar to themselves as comjiared with mathematics 

 and natural history, — the substitution of Greek for Latin, as the 

 preliminary and preferential course, would be free from objec- 

 tions. 



It is because Mr. Fergusson has not understood the nature of 

 education, that he has fallen into a further mistake. He says, if 

 there is one thing in which the common-sense of the English race 

 has shown itself more than usually pre-eminent, it is the contempt 

 with which the English treat their education, and their oblivion of 

 it. It is because Greek, Latin, and mathematics only constitute 

 the training machinery, and not the ultimate end of education, 

 that they are set aside when the mind is trained, and the man is 

 able to apply his jiowers to the business of the world around him. 

 It is not that the P^nglishman contemns his education, but that he 

 derives the best fruit from it, — that he does not want to carry his 

 school-books about with him. 



The mistake of the French and Germans leads to other results. 

 Tliey think that the great eiul of school education is to give imme- 



diate, special, and self-sufficing instruction : but the end is, that 

 their men, fresh from school with the whole circle of the arts and 

 sciences crammed into them, are unable to cope with our English- 

 men, whose minds have been trained by hard work in their schools, 

 and by the practice afterwards of that greatest of schools— the 

 world. Some may think the Frenchman or High Dutchman better 

 taught and more accomplished than the Englishman, but the evi- 

 dence of facts is in favour of the superiority of the latter. What 

 result the University of London, and the Useful-Knowledge- 

 cramming system of the i>resent day, may have in bringing down 

 our su])eriority, remains to be seen. 



If i\Ir. Fergussson is right as to his finishing stroke, the waning 

 influence of Roman example, he might better have spared his on- 

 slaught: he would not have wasted his strength, nor wearied his 

 allies. 



The comment on the political history of Rome, tastes of the 

 bitterness of the rest; but we can only grieve that a less partial 

 analysis had not been applied, for the writer shows that he has the 

 power, if he had the will, to make a fairer estimate of Rome than 

 is commonly done. It wanted not virulent abuse and misrepre- 

 sentation to teach us that Rome was neither greater nor better 

 than ourselves : it wanted only a truthful investigation. He has 

 brought to light many valuable reflections, on which we should 

 like to comment, — but we cannot so well leave our beaten track as 

 he can. By bringing the light of art to bear upon the political 

 and social system, Mr. Fergusson has given a higher value to art- 

 istic studies, and has illustrated their importance. The fault now 

 is, that the scholar is nothing of an artist, and the artist nothing 

 of a scholar; and we therefore miss the entirety of ancient learn- 

 ing and art. Mr. Fergusson, therefore, legitimately discusses his- 

 torical and political questions, — for, as he treats them, they belong 

 to the domain of art; and any objections we may make apply to 

 the doctrines, they demur to the allegations and not to the juris- 

 diction. 



\V'ere even Roman literature studied by the light of art, and ;n 

 its entirety, Mr. Fergusson's diatribes would utterly miss. 



We cannot refrain from observing, that if English literature 

 were made to take the part of the classics in education, we shouli , 

 it is true, get rid of the fondness for Roman worth, Roman great- 

 ness, and Roman glory; but we should be more given to self- 

 glorification than we are — worse than the French, High Dutch, or 

 Yankees. "Lagloire de la France" would be outdone; the one, 

 free, wise, and great Dutch f(dk would be out-talked; and "our 

 most remarkable country" of tlie stripes and stars would swell 

 itself up still more, in tlie strain to outboast the Britishers. It is 

 better sometimes to think of Roman greatness and Roman glory, 

 for they are no longer — they are vvitli the dead: of the masters of 

 the world we have nought but the ashes, and in the midst of the 

 greatest empire that has yet been seen, lords of a fifth of mankind, 

 we too may bethink us of the end of all things. 



The remarks of our writer on Roman institutions are the key to 

 those on Roman architecture; but they apply with more justice. 

 Rome was certainly behindhand in art, — her architects, like our's, 

 were copyists, and bad ones; originality she had none, and she 

 could not derive inspiration from Greek art, for the breath of 

 Greek art had fled; and of Etruria, slie took rather the cerements 

 of the dead than the faslnons of the living. 



Before the time when the Romans began to build, the Doric order 

 had fallen from what ,Mr. Fergusson considers its early purity of 

 style and design, and the Romans had neitlier carving nor painting 

 with which to bedeck it. They took up the Doric order, but made 

 it worse by thinning the columns, like the wooden posts of their 

 Etruscan friends. On the Corinthian order Mr. Fergusson re- 

 marks at length. From its ornate character it well suited the 

 purposes of the Romans, vvhile it could be adapted as they pleased; 

 and if tlie plan of tlie building needed little thought, the execu- 

 tion of the order needed still less, as there were no intricate 

 spirals, no carving, and no painting, and all was purely mechanical 

 ■ — any stonemason could work it out. Our writer is willing, there- 

 fore, to consider it ahnost a Roman order, and the example in the 

 temple of Jupiter Stator as the most perfect thing in arcliitecture 

 that Rome brouglit forth. He approves likewise of the Roman 

 adaptation of a sculptured base. 



'I he forms of the Roman temples are objected to as clumsy 

 adaptations from the Greek. There is not a single instance of a 

 perfect peristylar temple, and the buildings were small. The 

 temple of Venus and Rome, commonly restored as a perfect 

 peristylar example, 3(ja feet by 177, we think the writer justified 

 in treating as tuo temple cells, placed back to back, and so joined 

 together as to try to look like one temple. 



The best specimens of temjiles of the Roman time are those 



