68 



ARCHITECTURE. 



BOOK I. 



society improves, propriety requires a corresponding improve- 

 ment in the arts which are subservient to its purposes. The 

 progress of improvement in every art consists in two things — 

 the addition of convenience , and the introduction of ornament; 

 the former, to render the habitation of man adequate to his 

 wants ; and the latter, in imitation of that beauty which the 

 Author of Nature more or less bestows on all his works. Here 

 then we have the two leading principles of architecture, and 

 the source of instruction in these principles. Convenience and 

 utility, derived from a knowledge of the wants of the inhabi- 

 tant ; and beauty, or ornament, conferred upon the same prin- 

 ciples as we see it in the natural world, — of different degrees, 

 and assuming different characters. This then is the true theory 

 of design in architecture, and will constitute the first division 

 of the following remarks ; the second division shall treat of the 

 application of the principles of design to the different kinds 

 of buildings, or subjects of architecture ; and the third divi- 

 sion shall contain a few remarks on execution and internal 

 finishing. 



