Native .and Art, April 1, 1867.] 
REVIEWS. 
125 
M. Figuier’s volume they will find reading to their heart’s 
content. Although in some respects (we allude more 
particularly to the department of physiology) the work has 
defects, yet, taken all in all, it is one of the finest, fullest, 
and best illustrated popular treatises on entomology we 
have yet seen. 
A History of Architecture in all Countries, from the earliest 
times to. the present day. By James Eergusson, F.R.S., 
&c. &c. John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1867. 
The time is not so very long since architecture was taught 
as being wholly comprised in five orders. There were the 
Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, and the Tuscan. The 
Gothic might have been mentioned ; but the authorities of 
the time would only tell you that, being so very barbarous, 
it ought not to be included in the word architecture. How 
wonderful is the change. The Gothic has completely taken 
the place of the five orders, so much so, that some of the 
most modern architects know little more of them than their 
names. With this change there has also come the knowledge 
that there were many other styles of architecture in theworld, 
all of them as important as those of Greece and Rome. It 
is now clear that the architecture of Greece cannot be 
properly understood without a previous study of Egyptian 
on the one hand, and of Assyrian on the other. Gothic 
appears in Venice allied to Byzantine, and the Byzantine 
again is allied to the Arabic. The Assyrian and Persian lead 
there is no man more fitted for the purpose ; in fact, there 
is no other man who has had the necessary education to 
enable him to produce such a work. We have men deep in 
classical architecture ; there are plenty who know all about 
Gothic; Byzantine has numerous students; ancient Egyptian 
is well known ; but the trans-Indus architecture has been 
studied by few, and these few would all point to Mr. 
Eergusson as being the man with the greatest amount of 
knowledge, and as having s done more than any other 
to work out the subject. He spent a great many years in 
India, during which his leisure was devoted to visiting and 
drawing — drawing being the best of all means for studying 
this subject — all the important architectural remains of that 
country. By this means he made himself master of the 
various styles, and all their details, so that he has been 
able to classify them, and this classification includes as 
many orders as the “five” of the last generation. It is 
this complete knowledge of oriental architecture, coupled 
with an equally extended acquaintance with that of the 
Western world, which makes him the man fitted to write “ A 
History of Architecture in all Countries.” All previous 
works which pretended to this title were written by men 
who had studied only some particular style which formed 
the piece de resistance in their book, and the rest of the 
subject was served up as corner dishes, perhaps a mere 
fragment being made to represent the art of a vast 
geographical space, which we now find to be covered with 
examples of the highest value. But the present work goes 
on a different idea ; which Mr. Fergusson thus expresses in 
his preface : — 
“ It is, so far as I know, the first attempt to 
write a universal history of architecture in 
which each style shall occupy exactly that 
amount of space which the extent of its build- 
ings or their merit would appear to justify.” 
Let us now consider how the accomplished 
author has carried out his programme. Of 
course such a work cannot exhaust eaoh style 
— it does not pretend to do so, — but with 
these volumes you can sit at home, and turn- 
ing over their ample leaves, each illustrated 
by beautifullyminute woodcuts, you may wander 
over the world and, like a traveller, visit all its 
buildings of celebrity. You may explore the 
interior of the Great Pyramid, and understand 
its construction as well as if you were on the 
spot. You may ascend the Nile, and visit Thebes 
and its temples. Jerusalem and the Holy Places 
are an easy pilgrimage. The Acropolis can be 
scaled, and the Parthenon measured ; St. Sophia 
can be looked at without the usual demand 
for “ bucksheesh.” You may peep into the 
Caves of Inkerman, and pay a flying visit to 
Moscow ; a few pages turned over, and you are 
at Bagdad looking at the tomb of Ezekiel. The 
Birs Nimroud — the now accepted Tower of 
Babel — is ready for inspection, and so your 
enthusiastic guide leads you to India, with its 
wonderful rock-cut temples, and the elaborate 
and beautiful ornamental shrines which are to 
be found in every part of it. Now, on to Siam, 
and you have the beautiful temples which 
Mouhot, the French naturalist, was the first to 
discover, in his search after the wonders of 
insect life, through the jungles of that country. 
At the last meeting of the British Association 
Mr. Thomson exhibited the plans and numerous 
photographs of the Great temple of Nakhon 
Wat — one of those which Mouhot first came 
upon — and these are in part reproduced on Mr. Fergusson’s 
pages, so that the reader may form an idea of this wonderful 
remnant of ancient architecture. After looking in at the 
Great Temple of the Dragon at Pekin, an easy jump takes 
you over the Pacific, to Mexico and Peru, and their very 
strange Sun Temples, some of which are like Egyptian 
pyramids, and others with strong Buddhist analogies about 
them, leading to the idea of a connection between the old 
and new world, which Mr. Fergusson thinks may have existed 
VIEW OE EXTERIOR CORRIDOR, NAKHON WAT. 
From a Photograph by Mr. J. Thomson . 
us into India, and the study cannot be arrested till we have 
included the architecture of Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, and 
China. All are allied by links which it is necessary to 
recognize before the history of architecture can be under- 
stood. 
This is the task which Mr. Fergusson has undertaken, and 
