ARC 
ARC 
J 35 
ARC 
{ er of Harrow-school, shooting with bow and 
arrow was insisted upon as a fundamental part 
of the regulations. 
ARCHES, or Court of Arches, the su- 
preme court belonging to the archbishop of 
Canterbury, to which appeals lie from all 
the inferior courts within his province. 
ARCHIL, a moss of a grey colour, which 
grows on the rocks in many parts of the Ar- 
chipelago, and on the western coast of Eng- 
land. It yields a purple tincture, fugitive 
indeed, but very beautiful, which is the best 
; chemical test for acids and alkalis, and is 
known by the name of tincture of litmus. 
By the addition of tin it is rendered durable as 
a dye, and it then approaches to scarlet. 
Archil is however most commonly used to 
give a bloom to pinks and other colours. It 
readily gives out its colouring matter to 
water or any spirit. 
ARCHILOCH1AN, a term in poetry ap- 
plied to a sort of verses, of which Archilochus 
was the inventor, consisting of seven feet, 
the four first whereof are ordinarily dactvls, 
though sometimes spondees, the three last 
trochees : as in Horace, 
Solvitur acris hyems, grata vice veris 
& Favoni. 
ARC HITEC' I’( Ap^tnxroiv, of afyot chief, and 
rsicrwu an artificer or bunder), a professor of 
tiie art of building. The architect’s business 
and his glory, is the designing of a work, and 
his genius is displayed, as well in the general 
symmetry, ornaments, and magnificence of his 
plan, as in the useful arrangement of its inter- 
nal distribution. 
The necessary qualifications of a great and 
p erfect arch.tect, are numerous and hard of 
attainment. He should be profoundly skilled 
in the knowledge of the properties of the ma- 
terials he employs, the strength and durability 
of them, the method of connecting them toge- 
ther in the nearest direction to that in whicli 
they can be employed with their full strength; 
and this implies geometrical skill as well as 
physical knowledge. 
He should be skilled in perspective ; and it 
is necessary that he should be a* quick and 
, correct, though tie may not attain to be a fine, 
draftsman. Some of the time employed by 
young architects in practising this art, would 
{re much more usefully spent in acquiring a 
general knowledge of natural philosophy. 
tie should have a full knowledge of the 
various practised modes of combining together 
the materials of his building ; to guide nis ma- 
thematical reasoning, on the variety of new 
combinations his own practice may acquire : 
he should not merely design his roof, and 
trust to tiie carpenter for the judicious execu- 
tion ; nor plan the figure of his stair, and let 
the mason find out the safe means of sustain- 
ing its weight, with regular and proportionate 
solidity. 
In our climate, lie should perfectly under- 
stand the best means of generating, distribut- 
ing, and retaining warmth in his building, and 
plan his apartments with this material object 
in view. He should be able to direct the 
unscientific mere manufacturer, of grates and 
contrivances to contain the necessary fuel for 
this purpose. He should never build an im- 
perfect chimney to infest his house with smoke 
in t ie apartments, and counteract the ten- 
dency of the fire, to carry it off into the at- 
mosphere. In warmer regions his skill must 
be displayed in arranging the facilities for 
cooling his apartments. 
He should have a perfect knowledge of the 
proportions of the beautiful models of anti- 
quity, and genius to animate and direct him 
in the application of his acquirements. 
Vitruvius, Palladio, Vignola, Inigo Jones, 
de Lorme, Sir Christopher Wren, the Earl of 
Burlington, and Sir William Chambers, were 
very celebrated architects. 
ARCHITECTURE, the art of building, 
or a science which teaches how to erect build- 
ings, either for habitation or defence. The 
origin of this noble science may be traced 
in the Indian’s hut and the Greenlander’s 
cave; they shew the rude beginning from 
which it has grown to its present perfection 
and magnificence. It is an art of the first ne- 
cessity, and almost coeval with the human 
species. Man, from seeking shade and shelter 
under the trees of the forest, soon felt the ne- 
cessity and saw the utility of bending them to 
more commodious forms than those in which 
he found them disposed by nature. To huts 
made of trees and branches leaning together 
at top, and forming a conical figure plaistered 
with mud, succeeded more convenient, square, 
roofed habitations. The sides of these habi- 
tations, and tire inner supports for the cross 
beams of the roofs, being trunks of trees ; from 
them were derived those beautiful, symmetrical 
columns, the Orders of Architecture. 
Though the art of building was cultivated 
by the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, and Per- 
sians, with great success in the production of 
such gigantick structures as the pyramids of 
Egypt which exist to this day, and the Laby- 
rinth seen by Herodotus, with other works of 
extraordinary and vast magnificence ; yet we 
owe to the Greeks, the first structures, in 
which elegance and symmetry were combined 
with comfort and convenience in the plan. 
The established five orders of architecture, 
the Tuscan, tiie Doric, the Ionic, the Corin- 
thian, and the Composite, were brought to 
perfection under the Greeks and Romans. 
Modern efforts have added little or nothing 
to the beauty and symmetry of these columns, 
and the parts dependant on them; but much 
has been done in the internal improvement 
of mansions and houses. 
Roman and Grecian architecture, which 
teaches the proportions and arrangement -of 
the orders invented by them, being called 
ancient; modern, or practical architecture, 
will chiefly relate to the art of distributing 
the apartments with more attention to do- 
mestic economy, convenience, and comfort. 
And if we have not surpassed the taste of the 
ancients, in external design and ornament, 
nor equalled them in the durability and vast 
extent of their buildings, the ruins of which 
astonish us this day ; yet doubtless the natural 
and first purposes- of the art are more com- 
pletely answered, and the people in general 
are more comfortably lodged. 
A practice of raising up houses of a too ex- 
pensive and heavy solidity, is unfavourable to 
the general improvement of the art in respect 
of domestic economy and. convenience. Ac- 
cordingly the facility of procuring stone, and 
the want of brick earth, has produced in the 
capital of France, houses of enormous strength, 
and the buildings last too long ; while the 
slighter ones of London are more easily sus- 
ceptible of the changes necessarily introduced 
by improvements in the arts, and inventions 
for promoting domestic economy and comfort. 
The speculations of needy or avaricious build- 
ers, however, lead us into the opposite ex- 
treme but too often, and buildings are erected 
which very soon after they arefinished require 
essential repairs to keep them up during tire 
terms of the leases. 
Besides ancient and modern architecture, a 
third style of building may be traced from the 
same source with the former. Amongst the 
northern nations of Europe originated the 
style called Gothic ; which after the destruc- 
tion of the Roman empire by these people, 
they introduced in Europe to the exclusion of 
the Greek and Roman manner of architecture. 
Like the ancient Egyptians, they sometimes 
seem to have been more studious to astonish 
the eye with great and vast masses of stone, 
than to please by symmetry of design, orbeauty 
of ornament. 
But there are two species of Gothic ; the 
Saxon, heavy, plain, and robust, like the 
Tuscan ; the other, like Corinthian or Compo- 
site architecture, light, airy, and ornamental,, 
received its finish, from the hand of the Nor- 
mans, and was by them introduced into this- 
country. 
A grove of tall trees, meeting at top with 
interweaved branches, is the natural and beau- 
tiful model from which the aisle of the Norman 
Gothic cathedral is derived. 
A mistaken prejudice has prevented the due 
study of this style of building, though the most 
exquisite remains of it adorn our island; in 
the structures of which, much mathematical 
and geometrical skill may be observed : and 
we cannot help observing with bishop War- 
burton, that “ our Gothic ancestors had juster 
and manlier notions of magnificence on Gre- 
cian and Roman ideas, than those enemies of 
taste, who profess to study only classic ele- 
gance.” 
Sir William. Chambers remarks, “ that to 
those usually called Gothic architects we are 
indebted tor the first considerable improve- 
ments in construction ;” — “ that- there is a. 
lightness in their works, an art and boldness 
of ex -cution, to which the ancients never 
arrived, and which the modems comprehend 
and imitate with difficulty.” But to this 
manner of building, modern improved distri- 
bution is not- easily adapted ; though it seems 
peculiarly proper for religious edifices., 
OF THE. FIVE ORDERS, 
The Tuscan Order. 
Although there are no ancient remains of it, 
this order is generally placed first on account 
of its plainness ; and Vitruvius only mentions 
in an indistinct manner the general propor- 
tions of it. The Trajan and Antonine columns 
at Rome are commonly called of the. Tuscan 
order, though they have eight diameters for 
their height, and the torus and capitals do not 
exhibit Tuscan plainness.- It is highly proba- 
ble the Tuscan is only a simplification of the 
Doric, of which there are so many very ancient 
remains ; but to Tuscany it evidently owes its 
name, from being employed, there, in several 
large edifices. 
Its proportions are, fourteen modules or seven; 
diameters for the height of the column ; three 
modules and a half for the whole entablature, 
which being divided into ten equal parts, three 
are for the height of the architrave, three for 
the frize, and tour for the cornice : the capital" 
