16 Architecture in the United States. 



arose. 1 leave to others to decide why this form of government 

 seems to be best fitted for the success of architectural effort : it is 

 sufficient for our present purpose that we have every encouragement 

 from the fact. We have also a style to form for ourselves, and we have 

 yet among us little that is calculated to corrupt our taste : we have 

 excellent materials : we have wealth quite sufficient for our wants, but 

 not enough to tempt to extravagance in our buildings : our institutions 

 require many public edifices : we have a population enhghtened, 

 and prepared to reward success in architectural skill : the minds 

 of all are beginning to awake to the subject, and it is only requisite 

 that a proper impulse should be given. What more can we wish, un- 

 less it would be to revive the Grecian architects themselves, and trans- 

 fer them to our shores ? We cannot do this, but ive can do what will 

 honor us more. We can create the same skill, the same grandeur and 

 power of conception, and can secure to ourselves the same success that 

 marks every part of the Grecian architecture, and our posterity will be 

 able to do the same. There is no greater difficulty in the art now than 

 there formerly vi^as : it is only necessary for our architects to take the 

 course that was pursued by those of Greece, and they will succeed 

 as well. 



What was this course ? Men have reasoned about it from abstract 

 principles : let us draw our conclusions from the Grecian buildings 

 themselves. The art is there before us in a visible, tangible form, and 

 in its highest purity and power ; v;e feel this power strongly ; we 

 can place full confidence in the subjects from which we reason ; and 

 our inferences here will also take a practical character. Such are 

 the inferences we want. 



The reader has no reason to be alarmed at the task before him, 

 for the field of our enquiry is less extensive tlian it would, at fii'st 

 thought, seem to be. Our examination is limited to a single form of 

 building, and to a single order, the Doric. 



This order was almost exclusively employed till the Macedonian 

 conquest, a term comprising the best days of the art. Of this were 

 the temple of Jupiter Olympius at Olympia, of Ceres at Eleusis, of 

 Minerva at Sunium, of Jupiter Panhellenius at Egina, of Theseus 

 at Athens, and of this was the Parthenon, together with a great num- 

 ber of other temples of inferior consequence. Indeed, scarcely a 

 building of note, except the temple of Diana at Ephesus, can be 

 named in Greece, or in the countries settled from it, that is not of 

 this grave but beautiful order. And why was it so? There was no 

 necessity for this order, or for any order : nor was there any neces- 



