Architecture in the United States. 23 



of Camera Lucida in the art, but our reasoning is about another order 

 of men — of men who range through all creation and all ages, who 

 pass into the bright and boundless regions of fancy and then place in 

 one view before us, the treasures of all this time and space — of 

 real and imaginary worlds. To these a chastened and severe taste 

 is requisite, and this is gained only by long and unremitted effort. 



Is architecture a less intellectual art than painting ? Grecian archi- 

 tecture, at least, is not ; but how different from that of painters is the 

 course of most of those persons who aim at this difficult style. They 

 read Vitruvius perhaps : more probably they examine some plans and' 

 profiles of Grecian and Roman edifices : they learn the proportion 

 of the orders, and then, as if afraid that their skill may evaporate, go 

 directly to work. As well might we expect to become painters by 

 measuring the figures in Salvator Rosa's Cataline, or in his cave of 

 banditti. As reasonably might we prepare for writing an epic poem,, 

 by counting the lines of the Iliad, or of Paradise Lost. 



Taste in solid forms, is capable of as great improvement, as taste 

 in lines. Nature, the perfection of such forms, is all around us. 

 No one can examine an elm, or an oak, or a weeping willow, whether 

 verdant or naked, without finding himself benefitted by the labor.. 

 If we wish to make the effort on artificial forms, it is necessary only 

 to represent a few of the simplest kind on paper and compare them. 

 Let any one repeat the effort a few times, and I venture to say that his 

 judgment will be materially improved. Here probably commenced 

 the labors of the Grecian architect. With his taste well matured on 

 these, he rose to the more complicated kinds, still adhering to the 

 severest simplicity, and when so familiar with these as to be almost 

 instinctive in his perception of their merit, he proceeded next to the 

 higher character of design or expression in solid forms. Here was 

 to be the trial of his ultimate success, and on this part he labored 

 perseveringly and long; — and then he went forth confident in his 

 powers, — not to do homage to other minds, but to claim it for his own. 

 If he seemed to follow in the footsteps of others, it was because the 

 qualities of true beauty are always the same, great simplicity and 

 great finish. The Doric temple seems to have been the favorite ob- 

 ject, and no person who has seen one of them, will wonder that it 

 was so, for no edifice can be found, so fitted for giving form to pure 

 and grand conceptions ; but every thing he touched, whether temple, 

 or altar, or tripod base, or even if it was the covering of a well — 

 all became exquisitely beautiful : it could not be otherwise. 



