Architecture in the United States. 15 



still without a rival.* Why is it so? If the Grecian edifices were 

 all the labor of one man or of a few men, we might attribute the suc- 

 cess to a lucky hit of the times, and be no more surprised than we 

 are at the fact that the world has produced but one Homer and one 

 Newton. But this was not the case. There were so many struc- 

 tures and in so many distant places, that there must have been many 

 architects, and yet every one of these structures seems to have been 

 of the same grand and noble character as those which have come 

 down to our times. Every column, every block of marble which has 

 reached us from that age, no matter to what use it was applied, seems 

 to have received its form from some master in the art. There must 

 then have been certain principles well known and extensively prac- 

 tised upon to produce this constant and extensive eiFect. What were 

 they, and how can they be discovered ? They did not consist in giving 

 certain shapes to the building, or certain forms to a column, or certain 

 proportions to the parts : these shapes and forms and proportions are 

 universal in their edifices it is true, but the Romans adopted them 

 and failed, and so have the moderns also done. There is a speaking 

 character, a majesty, a power in the expression of a Grecian edifice 

 even in its ruins, which the Roman buildings never had, and to which 

 modern architecture makes no approach. This may seem like po- 

 etry, but I describe only w*hat I have often felt and what every one 

 must feel who has an opportunity of comparing the different styles; 

 I believe, at least, that hitherto there has been but a single exception. f 

 Where does this superiority lie ; what is the secret of its origin ; can 

 other nations succeed as the Greeks have succeeded ? Or does the 

 failure during two thousand years shut out all hope of success ? If 

 the principle were known, how would it apply to the forms which 

 architecture must take among us ? 



Others may discuss these questions as matters of abstract knowl- 

 edge : to us they are of the deepest practical interest. Greece was 

 republican in its government, and was divided into rival states, and so 

 is our country : PalmyraJ was a republic, and there the Roman style 

 is found in its greatest perfection : Florence was a republic when she 

 became distinguished in architecture : Genoa built her marble palaces 

 while a republic, and Venice was a republic while her fairest edifices 



* " — Compared with whose stupendous works [the Grecian] the puny eflfbrts of 

 modern art are but as the labors of children." — Clarke's Travels, Chap. XII. 

 t Wheler. t Vide " Ruins of Palmyra," by "Wood and Dawkins. 



