481 
geta being supposed the names of priestesses by whom the stones 
were dedicated.* Others, again, consider arccr^sa to be nothing 
more than a hairdresser, and vzotirarg/a, an under-hairdresser — the 
same as an sfitf'ksxrpcx,, or a tirewoman ; and the stones, therefore, 
to be a sort of advertisement of their profession by Anthusa and 
Laoageta. Lord Aberdeen follows out these nice and critical inqui- 
ries with much learning and much patience, and with similar clear 
and convincing effects as in the case of the Attic tetradrachms. 
The treatise of Lord Aberdeen, of which the title is “ An Inquiry 
into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture,” was originally 
contributed as a preface to Mr Wilkins’ translation of Vitruvius. 
It was published afterwards in a separate form by the author, and 
has lately been brought out by Mr Weale, the architectural pub- 
lisher, at the moderate price of one shilling. If we knew nothing of 
Lord Aberdeen’s scholarship except by this treatise, we should have 
abundant proof of its accuracy, its elegance, and its extent. The 
essay shows a masterly hand in treating the subject. Nearly all the 
celebrated buildings of ancient Greece are brought before the reader, 
and their characteristic features are discriminated with a skilful 
touch. The whole question of the origin of architectural forms is 
discussed in reference to the inquiry into the principles of beauty in 
Greek architecture, although I cannot help thinking that he loses 
sight of that point at times. Lord Aberdeen disputes, and indeed 
refutes, the theory of Burke on the sublime and beautiful, and sup- 
ports himself the theory of beauty as grounded on association — the 
theory of Mr Alison, as developed in his Essay on Taste, and as ad- 
mirably supported and illustrated by Francis Jeffrey in his cele- 
brated critique on Mr Alison in the “Edinburgh Keview.” I would 
speak with much diffidence on such a question, but I cannot help 
thinking there is very little satisfaction in these theories of beauty, 
and inquiries into the 'principles of beauty. The idea of beauty is 
too refined and too delicate to admit of such analyses and dissections. 
The application of female dialectics to beauty, vulgarly called a wo- 
man’s reason, is after all more satisfactory than analysis and theory. 
It is beautiful, because it is beautiful; so we say of the orders of 
Greek architecture. There is a severe and simple grandeur in the 
Doric, with its firm-set columns, its massive triglyphs, and deep 
entablature ; there is a grace in the Ionic, with its more slender 
* As the KCff[jt,Y\r^au, or ornamenters of some deity. 
