47'- ARCHITECTURE OF DIFFERENT AGES. 



this globe, mankind stood more in need of shade from the sun than 

 of shelter from the inclemency of the weather. A very small addi- 

 tion to the sh.i'le of the woods, served them for a dwelling. Sticks 

 laid across from tree to tree, and covered with brushwood and 

 leaves formed th" first houses in those delightful regions. As po- 

 pulation and the arts improved, these huts wcr< gradually refined 

 into commodious dwellings. The mattrials were the same, but more 

 artfully put together. At last agriculture led the inhabitants out 

 of the woods into the open country. The connection between the 

 inhabitant and the soil became more constant and mon iut< resting. 

 The wish to preserve this connection was natural, and fixed estab- 

 lishments followed of course. Durable buildings were more desir. 

 able than those temporary and perishable cottages, stone was sub- 

 stituted for timber. But as these improved habitations were gra. 

 dual refinements on the primitive hut, traces of its construction re- 

 mained, even when the choice of more durable materials made it in 

 some measure inconvenient. Thus it happens that the trunks of 

 trees, upright, represent columns ; the girts 6r bands, which 

 serve to keep the trunks from bursting, express bases and capi- 

 tals ; and the summers, laid across, gave a hint of entablatures ,; as 

 the coverings, ending in points, did of pediments. 



We shall not enter minutely into a history of the progress of ar- 

 chitecture ; hut :,lmll shew that the above view of ornamental archi. 

 lecture will go far in accounting for some of the more general dif- 

 ferences of national style which may be observed in different parts 

 of the world. The Greeks borrowed many of their arts from their 

 Asiatic neighbours, who had cultivated them long before. It is 

 highly probable that architecture travelled from Persia into Greece. 

 In the ruins of Shushan, Persepolis, or Tehiminar, are to be seen 

 the first models of every thing that distinguishes the Grecian archi- 

 tecture. There is no doubt, we suppose, among the learned, as 

 to the great priority of these great monuments to any thing that 

 .remains in Greece ; especially if we take into account the tombs of 

 the mountains, which have every appearance of greater antiquity 

 than the remains of Persepolis. In those tombs we see the whole 

 ordonnance of column and entablature, just as they began to de. 

 viate from their first and necessary forms in the wooden buildings. 

 We have the architrave, frize, and corniche ; the far-projecting 

 mutulf-s of the Tuscan and Doric orders ; the modillions no less 

 diiiiuct ; the rudiments of the Ionic capital ; the Corinthian capi- 



