Architecture in the United States. 249 



dations in the most rapid torrents ; and, leaving- the earth filled with 

 monuments of its power, ascends to the stars, measures and weighs 

 the sua and the planets, and determines the laws of their motions, 

 and can bring under its dominion those cometary masses that are, as 

 it were, strangers to us, wanderers in the immensity of space ; and 

 applies data gained from contemplation of the sidereal heavens, to 

 measure and establish time, and movement, and magnitude below.'* — 

 (Discourse V.) 



To conclude, we look upon Su' Humphry Davy as having afford- 

 ed a striking example of what the Romans called a man of good for- 

 tune ; — whose success, even in their view, was not however the re- 

 sult of accident, but of ingenuity and wisdom to devise plans, and of 

 skill and industry to bring them to a successful issue. He was for- 

 tunate in his theories, fortunate in his discoveries, and fortunate in 

 living in an age sufficiently enlightened to appreciate his merits ; — 

 unlike, in this last particular, to Nevi1;on, who, (says Voltaire) al- 

 though he lived forty years after the publication of the Principia, had 

 not at the time of his death, twenty readers out of Britain.f Some 

 might even entertain the apprehension that so extensive a popularity 

 among his cotemporaries, is the presage of a short-lived fame ; but 

 his reputation is too intimately associated with the eternal laws of 

 nature to suffer decay ; and the name of Davy, like those of Archi- 

 medes and Gahleo and Newton, which grow greener by time, will 

 descend to the latest posterity. O. 



Art. II. — Architecture in the United States. 



To my former remarks on the importance of this subject to our 

 country, I beg leave to add a short extract from Lord Karnes' Ele- 

 ments of Criticism, which is valuable as it brings experience to our 

 support, the best support in our reasonings about men. 



"I add another observation, that both gardening and architecture 

 contribute to the same end, by inspiring a taste for neatness and ele- 

 gance. In Scotland, the regularity and polish even of a turnpike- 

 road has some influence of this kind upon the low people in the neigh- 

 bourhood. They become fond of regularity and neatness; which is 



* See Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1827. t Playfair, Diss. II. 



Vol. XVII.— No. 2. 5 



