1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



137 



The general resemblance between the Aymara and the Maya ap- 

 pears in actual observation to be as close as that of two families of 

 the Indo-European languages, but does not extend to general words, 

 only to some of the simple words, and to construction. 



Into Mr. Norman's speculations we cannot enter, but we cannot re- 

 sist observing that the general evidence seems to bear upon the com- 

 mon origin of the civilized races of America, and their relationship 

 to the civilized races of the old world. When we trace the Indo-Eu- 

 ropean languages up to their common stock, we find in the Sanskrit, 

 Zend and Persian types, although many points of resemblance, many 

 points of diversity, and perhaps no greater difference exists between 

 the Japhetic, Semitic, and Hamitic languages, or whatever the clas- 

 sification may ultimately be determined to be. It certainly is the case 

 that although there is a distinct character of the Semitic ' and Indo- 

 European languages, that points of identity are to be discovered, 

 while among the scattered people of the Pacific ocean, many relics of 

 language are to be found, which may have a relationship with those 

 two great divisions. - There is nothing, therefore, to countenance 

 any departure in that respect from the testimony of the sacred records 

 as to the common origin of the several human races. Supposing the 

 American civilized races to have migrated from Iranistan, their route 

 might lay through southern Siberia (in which ancient and extensive 

 monuments are to be found), across the Pacific to the Columbia, by 

 the course of that river to the valley of the Mississipi, thence through 

 Mexico, to the western coast of South America. The circumstance 

 of a race not occupying the whole of a country, is frequently to be 

 found in the migrations of the Indo-European nations. Thus it is 

 questionable if Scandinavia and Ireland were ever occupied by what 

 Mr. Winning calls the Perso-European races, who pushed out the 

 Medo-European races. A subsequent Mongol invasion of the Ameri- 

 can continent, taking a different route, might have supplanted the 

 civilized population, and extended its settlements in the same way 

 that is familiar to us in the history of Europe. But we must leave 

 such speculations, and wait for the researches and labours of others 

 to reveal that fossil history of America, which will yet be digged from 

 its monuments, and collected from among the tribes of its children, 

 secluded in mountain fastnesses. 



Martin Chuzzkwit. By Boz. London: 1843. 



It must be confessed that we seem to go altogether out of our way 

 in bestowing any notice on a work of this kind ; still, as Mr. Dickens 

 treats the architectural profession rather cavalierly in this new pro- 

 duction of his, we feel ourselves called upon to be equally free with 

 him, and must tell him, that, as far as they have yet been shown, both 

 his Mr. Pecksniff and his Tom Pinch are errant caricatures — not only 

 over-drawn, but ill-drawn — fantastic creatures of one who seems to 

 mistake sheer extravagance for imagination. It now looks as if Mr. 

 Dickens had been quite spoilt by success, and accordingly fancies that 

 whatever he writes will be sure to take with the public. So far, he 

 may not be very much in the wrong, for we believe that had " Chuz- 

 zlewit " been given to the world without his name, it would have 

 been pronounced " sad stuff." What should be character is only 

 coarse caricature, and is laid on, not with the pencil of a master, but 

 with a troirel. Mr. Pecksniff might do for a "Gin-Palace" architect, 

 but for nothing better; and even then his barefaced hypocrisy, as 

 blundering too, as it is barefaced, is perfectly gratuitous, and by no 

 means a professional trait. We may therefore suppose, that such as 

 it is, that character is intended as an individual portrait, the original 

 of which we are quite unacquainted with. At all events, it is a 

 highly disagreeable and absurd one ; and wholly destitute of proba- 

 bility. It might be rendered a vehicle for wholesome satire, but not, 

 we fear, by Mr. Dickens, for to say the truth, he appears to know very 

 little either of architecture, or the profession. In fact, he evidently 

 shirks the former, otherwise he would have shown up the absurdities 

 of Mr. Pecksniff's own designs, and would have let the public see 

 what arrant humbug and quackery will impose upon it. Humbug, 

 however, is by no means confined to the architectural profession : at 

 the present day there is more than enough of it, on the part of those 

 critics, who would fain persuade us that we have got another Henry 



1 We may note that vie have observed great resemblance between the 

 affixes and suffixes ol the Hebrew and Arabic and the Magyar, and in the 

 pronouns generally. 



- It is curious to observe the wide spend of the roots mira (Sanscrit), 

 sea or water, and ship or skill',— words perhaps which boast ot the most 

 extensive diffusion ; and admitting the seat of the human race to be in Iran- 

 istan, easily to be accounted for by the neighbourhood of the Euphrates and 

 the Indus, the Persian Gulph, the Arabian and Caspian seas, 



Fielding in Charles Dickens ; which we shall believe when we believe 

 that Tom Moncrieff is a second William Shakspere.— After all, we 

 may be mistaken in one very essential point, — namely, the authorship 

 of the work : inasmuch as it professes not to be written, but merely 

 edited, by Boz. Consequently he does not give it to the world as his 

 own, and has probably merely been employed to lick into shape some 

 other person's literary cub. 



Ancient and Modern Architecture. By M. Jules Gailuabaud. 

 London : Firmin Didot, 1842. Parts 4, 5, 6, and 7. 



The interest of this work continues unabated. We find in the 

 numbers before us, the Tower of the Giants at Gozo, Temple of Se- 

 gesta, St. Vital at Ravenna, the Cathedral of Freyburg, the Certosa 

 at Paira, the Mosques of Cordova, and Ebu Touloun at Cairo, and a 

 Gallery in the Church of the Madeleine at Troves. The two plates 

 of St. Vital and its details give as good an idea of that remarkable 

 monument as could be desired, and also another remarkable monu- 

 ment of very remote antiquity, the Tower of the Giants, is exten- 

 sivelv illustrated. The designs seem, indeed, to be executed with 

 that care which is requisite to give them value, as a work of re- 

 ference. 



The Topographer and Genealogist. Part I. London : J. B. Nichols. 



This is a quarterly work, which takes up a good position in a field 

 where much service" is to be done. In the first article on the Earls of 

 Lincoln, we recognize a spirit of critical research, which promises to 

 do much good in the weed-abounding field of genealogy; hut we 

 should have liked also a more comprehensive grasp of the historical 

 bearings of the subject. The catalogues raisoimees of brasses, monu- 

 ments, and new antiquarian publications, will prove invaluable to the 

 amateur and student, and makes stores of information readilv avail- 

 able, which now require unnecessary labour to reach. If this work 

 can but keep pace with the mass of scattered information constantly 

 springing up on the subjects of its research, and present regular di- 

 gests of them, as digests of cases are supplied to the legal profession, 

 antiquarian and topographical studies will be very much advanced. 

 We may notice a slight clerical error, by some mistake. Mr. Aker- 

 man's valuable Glossary of the Wiltshire Dialect has crept under the 

 head of works relating to Yorkshire. 



Examples of Encaustic Tilts. Part III. London : J. B. Nichols. 



This number contains some examples of heraldic tiles, which per- 

 fectly show the applicability of this material for such kind of decora- 

 tion. It also illustrates a series of wall tiles from Malvern, and the 

 curious tile from Worcestershire, bearing the following inscription 

 here slightly modernized. 



" Think, man, thy life may not aye endure — 

 That diou dost thyself, of that thou art sure, 

 But that thou keepest, unto thy /actor's cure.' 

 And ever it avail thee, it is but adventure. J 



Mr. Nash reads executor, but we should suggest factor or faiclair, 

 an agent, by which the applicability of the text is equally maintained, 

 and its language better preserved. 



BADEN-BADEN. 



The new Trinkhalie, or Pump-room, by the architect Hubsch, at 

 Baden, is spoken of in terms of very high commendation by a writer 

 in a German periodical. " I consider this building," he says, "to be 

 one of the happiest specimens of architecture that have been pro- 

 duced in our times. Delightfully situated, the structure itself is 

 beautiful in its form and proportions, and unaffectedly expressive in 

 character, — significant in design, and preserving a tasteful medium 

 between unmeaning decoration on the one hand, and bare and dry 

 scantiness of it on the other." The building is raised on a boldly 

 rusticated substructure, and consists of seventeen open arcades, whose 

 flattened arches spring from columns, which last are uot according to 

 any particular order, except that their capitals, being foliaged, par- 

 take of the Corinthian character; but the columns themselves are of 



Care. 



