HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ARCHITECTURE. ARCHITECTURE is both an essential, and an ornamental art. While society is in its infancy, and strength and convenience alone are regarded, it ranks with other mechanic arts necessary to the comfort of man; but, when it adds to these, beauty of design, or a regard for effect, it becomes an ornamental or fine art, taking its place beside the sister arts, poetry, painting, and sculpture. The art of building, in its widest signification, includes naval, military, and civil architecture. Civil architecture, comprehending all edifices constructed for the use of man in civil life, forms the topic of the present work. In that advanced condition of society, to which moral and intellectual culture has given form and order, buildings are required for religion, education, legislation, public exercises, amusements, commerce, manufactures, for perpetuating heroic deeds and historical events, and for domestic life. Respecting the origin and early practice of this art, historical testimony affords no aid; some shelter, however, has been necessary for the comfort and protection of man ever since his creation. In the bland and healthful air of Paradise, Milton imagined "a blissful bower," as the dwelling-place of our first parents. "It was a place Chosen by the Sovran Planter, when he framed Fenced up the verdant wall; each beauteous flower, Iris all hues, roses and jessamine Reared high their flourished heads between, and wrought Mosaic; underfoot the violet, Crocus and hyacinth with rich inlay, Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone Of costliest emblem; other creature here, Bird, beast, insect, or worm, durst enter none, Such was their awe of man." Alas! how soon fallen Adam and Eve needed a more substantial shelter! Expelled from lovely Eden, the first man probably laboured "in the sweat of his brow," to build the first habitation. Every invention has its origin in the wants of man. As the human mind increases in power, the whole material world is brought under its dominion and made to minister to physical comfort and pleasure. Man advances by slow degrees to this proud elevation. It matters not, in this connexion, indeed it is out of our province, to discuss the vexed question of man's progress. Art is progressive. Before man exercised the faculty of invention as an architect, he may have crept into hollow trees, or inhabited caves, as tenant in common with the beasts of the earth. Trees, with their wide-spreading branches, offered a natural shelter; by twining them together at the top, where they grew at a convenient distance apart, and filling in the sides with branches, something like a house would be formed. The wigwams of our North American Indians are only one step in advance of this kind of shelter. They cut down the trees, place them in a circular form, fasten them together at the top, interweave branches "to fence up the verdant wall," and fill the interstices with clay. These miserable huts do not equal in their mechanical construction, the nest of the oriole. The primitive huts of the Caffres, advance one step farther. They are regular domes, covered with mud, which hardens in the sun. The doors, or holes for entrance, are only two or three feet high, and the king himself is obliged to enter his regal residence "on all fours." The mud structures of the beaver are superior to them; but, as Dr. Jolinson says, "the beaver of the present day can build no better than could the beaver, four thousand years ago." Tents were among the earliest habitations. They were made at first of the skins of animals, afterwards of felt and various kinds of cloth. The Patriarchs of the Old Testament dwelt in tents, "While on from plain to plain they led their flocks, In search of clearer spring and fresher field." On each green and chosen spot, these portable habitations could be spread in a moment, and as readily removed. The Israelites, during their wanderings in the wilderness, dwelt in tents. Their Tabernacle for religious worship was a spacious and magnificent tent, divided into three parts. Coverings of skins, rendered it impervious to rain and dampness. The first or inner covering, was of "fine twined linen," wrought with needlework in various colours; the second covering was of goat's hair; the third, “of skins dyed red," and the fourth, of "skins dyed blue." Even at the present day, "The Arab band Across the sand, Still bear their dwellings light, And neath the skies Their tents arise, Like spirits of the night; While near at hand The camels stand, And drink the waters bright." |