26 Sketch of a Classification of the European Rocks. 



wish for it and it will come. I will point out the way. The artist 

 who loads our edifices with ornament or multiplies the parts more 

 than is necessary, is either ignorant of his art, or means to slight 

 his work and throw dust in our eyes so as to blind us to its de- 

 fects. Let us begin then with requiring simplicity in our buildings. 

 We shall soon have it, and its immediate efiect will be a pov/erful 

 and favorable action on our taste. I have seen such a result. In 

 one of our cities there was erected during the past year an edifice 

 after the Grecian plan. It is of the Doric order, and is marked with 

 much simplicity in all its parts. It is of the cheapest and coarsest ma- 

 terials, and is yet unfinished, indeed is still very rude in its exterior. 

 This building has already had very great efiect on the minds of the 

 population of that city : men are beginning to judge of expression and 

 force in architecture who never thought of such things before. So 

 much for the efiect of simplicity on the taste of our people : let us look 

 for a moment at the effect our dem.and for it will have on the archi- 

 tects themselves. Finding it impossible to dazzle or bewilder the 

 mind, by factitious helps they will from necessity attempt beauty and 

 power of design : their taste will thus begin a course of discipline 

 and will again act on ours. Mind will continue to operate on mind. 

 And then will arise among us men of pure and lofty conceptions, 

 who will scorn all tricks of art, and whose taste will be content only 

 when it makes each object it touches, an image of itself : architecture, 

 no longer disguised by tinsel or borne down by profuse ornament, will 

 rise once more in majesty and power, and will once more take its propt- 

 er rank among the arts : cherished by the nation, it v/ill in return add 

 honor to our halls of legislation ; it will meet us with its purifying in- 

 fluence in our houses of worship ; it will assist as in rewarding the 

 brave ; it will encourage us in our reverence for virtue ; it will draw a 

 bright halo around the name of our country ; it will make us a better 

 and, a happier people. 



(To be coiicluded in the nexi.JYamier.) 



Art. III.* — Sketch of a Classification of the European Bocks ; by 

 Henry T. De la Beche, Esq. F. R. S. fyc.-[ 



To propose in the present state of geological science any classifi- 

 cation of rocks which should pretend to more than temporary utility, 



* From the London Philosophical Magazine for December, 

 t Communicated by the Author. 



