form; and this taste must be exercised with unceasing industry in combining such forms and in trying their combinations. The Greeks were like other men, and came to perfection in architecture as men have come to perfection in other matters. We err most egregiously if we suppose them architects by nature, or that they gained their mighty power by folding their hands and waiting for hints in a happy dream, or even by profuse but idle admiration of the efforts of men from other countries. They took the powers which nature gave them, and by unceasing culture brought them to the very highest perfection; these they applied, and they succeeded; others will succeed when they do all this, and not till then."

CHAPTER XIX.

ARCHITECTURE IN THE UNITED STATES, FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY.

IN tracing the progress of the art in the United States, we are upon almost untrodden ground, where only a few faint footsteps can be discovered.

Although the first adventurers from England brought with them the knowledge of the arts of civilized and refined society, their situation for years was such as to preclude the exercise of these arts.

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When the first colonists of Jamestown set sail for a harbour in Virginia, A. D. 1607, of the one hundred and five on the list of emigrants, there were but twelve labourers, and very few mechanics. They were going to a wilderness, in which as yet not a house was standing, and there were forty-eight gentlemen to four carpenters." Their first employment was to fell timber for the erection of places of shelter, houses they could scarcely be termed. They might have received some hints for their rude architecture from the imperial residence of Powhatan.* Captain Newport, * This native chieftain has been styled the "Emperor of the Country."

Captain John Smith, and twenty other colonists, soon after their landing at Jamestown, visited the principal residence of this renowned chieftain, near the site of the present city of Richmond; it consisted of twelve wigwams.

As might have been expected from the predominance of gentlemen over working-men, the colony was soon in a miserable condition. At first they were all compelled to labour; as Captain John Smith says, "Now falleth every man to worke; the Councell contrive the fort, the rest cut down trees to make place to pitch their tents; some provide clapboard to relode the ships, some make gardens, some nets, &c. ;" but soon they became exceedingly idle.

Not long

Various calamities beset the colonists. after they were established, an accidental fire destroyed nearly the whole of Jamestown. Smith says, "The towne, which being but thatched with reeds, the fire was so fierce as it burnt their pallisados, (though eight or ten yards distant,) with their armes, bedding, apparell, and much private provision. Good Master Hunt, our preacher, lost all his liberary, and all he had but the cloathes on his backe; yet none never heard him repine at his losse. This happened in the winter, in that extreme frost, 1607."

Famine followed, and continued dread of their savage foes.

Their scanty provisions had become spoiled on the long voyage. "Our drink," say they, "was unwholesome water; our lodgings, castles in the air." Despair

of mind ensued; so that, in less than a fortnight after the departure of the homeward-bound fleet, hardly ten of them were able to stand; the labour of completing some simple fortifications was exhausting; and no regular crops could be planted. During the summer, there were not on any occasion five able men to guard the bulwarks. The fort was filled in every corner with the groans of the sick, whose outcries night and day for six weeks, rent the hearts of those who could minister no relief.*

Disunion and strife among the colonists, completed the scene of misery. Nothing but the favour of God, through the instrumentality of the brave and enterprising Smith, saved the colony from entire destruction.†

It was a long time before sad experience taught the mother country the necessity of sending colonists who were hardy men, skilled in mechanical arts, and accustomed to labour.

"When you send againe," wrote the indefatigable Smith, "rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers-up of trees-roots, well provided, than a thousand such as we have; for except wee be able both to lodge them, and feed them, the most will consume with want of necessaries, before they can be made good for anything."

* Bancroft.

His friend, the youthful Pocahontas, who saved his life, is called by one of the early historians, the Numparell (nonpareil) of Virginia.

Thus, struggling with ten thousand difficulties, the indomitable spirit of Smith at length succeeded in placing the colony upon a firm, enduring foundation. The gentlemen, compelled by stern necessity, could wield the axe like accomplished wood-cutters; for after two years of disasters, it was enacted as a law, "That if any man would not work, neither should he eat."

But like most public benefactors, Smith was sorely beset by enemies; notwithstanding his entreaties for efficient colonists, they continued to send broken-down tradesmen, dissolute gallants, &c., men more fitted to corrupt, than to found a commonwealth. These gave him infinite trouble, yet he resolutely maintained authority over them. At last an accidental explosion of gunpowder disabled him, by inflicting wounds, which the surgical skill of Virginia could not relieve. Delegating his authority to Percy, he embarked for England. Extreme suffering from his wounds, and the ingratitude of his employers, were the fruits of his services. He received for his sacrifices and his perilous exertions, not one foot of land, not the house he himself had built, not the field his own hands had planted, nor any reward but the applause of his conscience, and the world.* Smith at his departure left more than four hundred and ninety persons in the colony; in six months, indolence, vice, and famine, reduced the number to sixty.

The arrival of Lord Delaware, in June, 1610, saved

*Bancroft.