BUILDING. 



,t w;is not i;il after the conqucft of Egypt ll.at tliey built 

 Uic famous palaces of Siifa and Pcrfcpolis, and that tlicfc 

 grtat woikj were dlrcfted by Egyptian architea? 

 The fame talle foigr^antic conltniftioneaiid cxt 



traorclniary 

 nations who, without 



works in largi.- Hones is found amoii;^ 

 communication with thofc already mentioned, mull receive it 

 from " itur; alone. When the Spaniards conquered Mexico 

 and Peru, they remarked that the natives were accuilomed 

 to build edifices with large Hones, perfedly wrouglit and 

 iomled, and laid without mortar; they had alio tranfported 

 from g'cat dilbnces malTes of extraordinary dinieiilions. 

 Stonchcnge, and various works of the fame nature, in our 

 own country and on the continent, may alfo be mentioned as 

 efforts of energetic conllrudtion, which had preceded every 

 thing of finidi and ornament. Thus it fliould appear that 

 this mode of building has every where been adopted previous 

 to that with fmall Hones and mortar. 



The inhabitants of countries deprived of ftone quarries 

 fupplied the delkitncy by means of bricks. Thefe were at 

 firll ufcd crude, being menly dried in the fun, during a con- 

 iiderable time ; but at length the maniifafturers found the 

 method by baking them to form bricks as folid and durable 

 as ftone. Of this material were built the walls of Babylon 

 and the temple of Belus, the moft; ancient example of tliis 

 mode of conllruftion which hillory records, and which were 

 reckoned amon^j the wonders of the world. We alio learn 

 that bitumen was ufed as cement in thcfe buildings, which 

 renders it pmbable that at this period the metliod of reduc- 

 ing calcareous Hones into lime to form mortar was not 

 known. 



It is, however, to the difcovery of lime, that we owe the 

 durabihty and pcrfeftion of cementitious building. Bitumen 

 forms a porous connexion which the air difTolves and the 

 aftion of the fun evaporates, while calcareous cem.ents are 

 capable of acquiring a hardnefs fuperior to that of the gene- 

 rality of bricks and building Hones. 



The buildings of the Greeks were atfirfl; of wood and clay ; 

 but they foon I'ubHitutcd Hone and marble to the beams and 

 poHs which formed their original edifices ; and thefe were fo 

 regular and beautiful, that they ofiered a model, which art 

 never loft fight of in the moft fumptuous decorations. From 

 this imitation arofe the orders of architetlure, and a reafoned 

 fyftem, which, alfigning to every member its ufe and fituation, 

 prcfervcd its original form, and perpetuated the memory of the 

 ancient art of building. The Greeks, favoured by nature 

 with abundant quarries of marble and other building ftones 

 of the beH quality, proceeded on the fame fimple principles 

 of conftruftion which charafterize the Egyptian monuments: 

 large blocks of ftone fquared with mathematical accuracy, 

 and laid without cement ; opeuings covered with lintels, 

 with a few exceptions of arches and vaults in the theatres 

 and gymnafia ; pediment roofs frequently covered with 

 marble tiles. The obfervations of Mr. Reverly, given in the 

 preface to the third volume of Stewart's " Antiquities of 

 Athens, " deferve tranfcription. «' I {hall add a few words 

 on the conilruflion of the buildings of Athens, which have 

 not been mentioned in this work. The tt.mple of Minerva 

 ie an example of this important part of their architefture. 

 The columns arc all conftrucled of fingle blocks in diameter, 

 and in courfes of more than a diameter in heig)it ; the vrall 



them without any other precaution being taken to relieve 

 the weij;ht from the piojefting edges of the abacus, than the 

 moft extreme accuracy in the two furfaces of the underface 

 or fofTit of the architrave, and the top of the abacufes, to 

 render them perfefilly parallel. The architraves are com- 

 pofed of three blocks, from face to back, each extending 

 from centre to centre of the columns, and each block alio 

 the whole height of the architrave, and of equal tiucknefs. 

 The frieze is in two courfes in height, and each courfe wants 

 fo much of being the whole thickncfs of the frieze, as allows 

 the metope, with the fculpture, which is cut on a thin flab, 

 to lie againft it. The triglyphs tail-in in one height, brit do 

 not go through. I obferved that a triglyph, lying among 

 the ruins, was fo formed, that the back of the block was. 

 confiderably narrower where it went into the frieze than 

 the breadth of the triglyph, fo that each extremity of the 

 triglyph projedcd on to the face of the (lab of the metope 

 feveral inches, thus forming a rebate, which enclofed the 

 metope. The cornice is in blocks, which are the width of one 

 mutule and one fpace, their ends forming a complete courfe 

 on the ir.fide. The tympanum of tlie pediment is com- 

 pofed of one courfe of upright (labs, in the outfide face, with 

 horizontal courfes behind them. The pavement, of which 

 great part remains, is in fquares of equal fize, large and thick ;.. 

 the joints, as is the univerfal practice at Athens, are cut 

 with the moft mathematical precifion, and are extremely 

 difiicult to difcover in thole parts which have taken a dark, 

 tint." " The perfeft ftate in which thefe monuments re- 

 main, which have not been dcftroyed by violence, is one 

 proof of the judgment with which they were conftrudled. 

 The temple of Minerva would have been entire, except its 

 timber roof, at this day, if a bomb had not been thrown into 

 it by the Venetians, when it was uftd as the powder magazine 

 of the Turks. The propylea, applied to the fame purpofe, 

 was ftruck by lightning, and blown up. The fmall temple 

 of Thefcus is almoft as entire as when it was firft ercfted. 

 Even fo fmall a building as the Choragic monument of Li- 

 ficrates is now entire, a circumftance arifing chiefly from the 

 great judgment fliewn in its conftruftion, byeredling it with 

 large blocks, and confolidating the whole with a roof wifely 

 made of one fingle piece of marble." 



The ereftion of porticos required a frequent employment 

 of very confiderable blocks, and accordingly implied great 

 iltill in the art of tranfporting and elevating thefe mafTes. 

 Vitruvius celebrates the fimple and ingenious method prac-- 

 tifed by Ctefiphon, in conveying the fhafts of the columns 

 of the temple of Diana at Ephefus from the quarries, which 

 were in fingle Hones, fixty feet long ; thefe, by means of 

 axle-trees, adapted at each, end, were made to revolve in the 

 manner of a garden-roller. 



The ancient Etrufcanshave left monuments of the fametafte 

 in the art of building ; however, it is to them that is generally 

 afcribed the method of building with fmall ftones and mortar, 

 at leaft, it is in the country which they inhabited, that are 

 found the moft ancient veftiges of this mode of conftruftion. 

 This method was carried to perfcftion by the Romans, who 

 were alfo probably the inventors of domes. Their firft tem- 

 ples were round and vaulted, as thofe of Qiiirinus, Romulus, 

 Faunus, Cybele, Vefta, &c. Cofl"utius was the tirft Roman 

 architeft who built after the manner of the Greeks, about- 

 5 200 



