Antiqua rians in va In architecture. 2. But to look at so wide a field in all its varieties, rious arts. and to embrace all its perfections, would be a task more than the mind of one man could perform; we therefore find in antiquarians various tastes, propensities, and turns of mind; one is fond of ancient coins, another of ancient typography, another of old pictures, another of the relics of sculpture, and still a greater number of the relics of literature; for the Latin and Greek scholar (though not generally so considered) is to all intents and purposes an antiquarian in language. Of the relics of architecture we obtain a correct knowledge, by the delineation and measurement of those, who have seen them the architect must feel thankful, that there are many antiquarians in this art also; there are many who have been to the very spot where architectural remains are, and have brought thence, and laid before the public full descriptions of the works, good or bad, that have existed in past ages and here let it be remarked, that the architect has a great advantage Advantage over the painter and sculptor, inasmuch as he can form a complete idea of any architectural work by a correct delineation and measurement; whereas the painter and sculptor must actually see the production, as neither a copy nor a cast, especially the former, can give any thing like a correct idea of the original. With such advantages therefore, the architect may more easily, and should, become acquainted with every kind of building, that ever existed; for by stufor extend- dying all the works of every age, and every country, he will acquire a store of ideas, which will enable him to compare, and judge correctly of what is really of an tect. Necessity ed knowledge. excellent, and to improve what is deficient; but in order to compare, select, improve, and investigate the real beauties of the art, he must lay a firm foundation in fixed and undoubted principles. It may be very well to say that such and such buildings existed at such and such periods, in the time of Pericles or Alexander; but the professed architect should be able to point out in what consisted the principal excellencies of those periods; and though the pursuits of the antiquarian are so useful, that science could never advance to any great perfection without them, yet let not the architect be so far an antiquarian as to hoard up matters curious only for their antiquity; let him rather make use of his reason, and judgment, let him, from the principles he has established in his own mind, and from the store of information the antiquarian supplies him with, let him digest and embody all that is united to the purposes of the art. Fixed principle to all 3. The necessity for fixed principles must be apparent to every body; and it is only because we have necessary such exquisite examples of the works of the refined sciences. periods of antiquity as our guides, that no one has thought it necessary to bring to a focus the principles upon which their excellencies depend. Every architect can no doubt descant on their beauties, and is very likely governed by principles very like those which I would here wish to investigate; but I am not aware, that the science has, ever since the time of the Greeks, been reduced to a scientific and regular system; and yet I cannot entertain the least doubt, as will appear in the next essay, that the Greeks must have been governed by fixed principles, un principles cannot embrace every con tingency. known to us. Let it, however, be remarked, that when we talk of a science being governed by fixed principles, we are not to understand that such science is so far governed by them, that they will The fixed embrace every contingency. Principles can only take a very general outline of a science; and a noble architectural luminary of North Britain expressly says, "No general rules for any practical art can be fixed from abstract principles;" for if we were to attempt to fix general rules for every contingency, volume upon volume would not embrace the subject: but though the rules of a science cannot be fixed, there is no doubt they must or ought to arise from abstract principles; or, as the same author very justly observes, "from those qualities which have been found universally to please;" which can be no other than abstract, or universal qualities or principles. &c. 4. In poetry and the drama, the general principles by which the Greeks were governed are handed Aristotle down to us by Aristotle: it is but therefore natural Principle of the drama, to conclude, that as they excelled equally in all the arts and sciences worthy of a civilized nation, they were governed by fixed principles in all; but the haps, prin- strongest presumptive evidence of their being goarchitec- verned by fixed principles in architecture, is the imIts variety mense variety in the different specimens even of only Greeks had, per ciples in ture. an argu ment. one order; by which it appears that they were not, as many modern writers would make it necessary to be, governed by any regular system of designing one order; but that they looked to the general rules of architecture itself, by which means they were enabled, even in the same order, to produce the most opposite effects. Hence we find, that in the different specimens of the Doric order, some are light, some massive, some imposing, some rich, and some elegant; nor did they consider, that there was but one way of producing these characters; for they have invariably taken into consideration, that if the situation of a building was high or low, in a town or in a plain, it would require more or less relative altitude in the supporting parts, to give it proper dignity, or more or less finish, or more or less prominence, according to the nearness or remoteness from the eye of the spectator. All these things show that their principles were of the most sound and rational kind. tion ano ment. 5. But there are still further considerations; for Its perfecif we look back to the period when neither the Doric ther argunor the Corinthian order were invented, how could we suppose, that trabi-columnal architecture could ever arrive at that beauty and perfection, at which it has arrived, without some principles very superior to our own? or how can we account for the modern and arch styles, which are very numerous, and capable of great beauties, never having arrived at perfection, but for the want of some rational principle? I have occasionally met with persons, who, when you ask them how trabi-columnal architecture arrived at such perfection, will tell you that certain forms, certain proportions, and certain arrangements, have been found to please, and therefore have been adopted; which is little better than saying, that these orders were invented and brought to perfection by chance; Perfection as if experiments had been made, and at length some arise from lucky wit, he did not know why, was fortunate C cannot chance. enough, in numerous instances, to hit on the true effect. How, let me ask such a reasoner, is it, that we do not trace such progressive improvement, which is certainly not the case, in Greece? for, various as the different specimens of the Doric, for instance, are, each of them is perfect in its particular character, and in each of them the full vigour of genius is strikingly displayed. Such reasoning must indeed necessarily fall to the ground directly we consider it; for what can be more absurd, than to imagine, that in thousands and ten thousands of cases, in this and other arts, the Greeks have always been lucky in hitting upon the right plan, merely by chance, without any rational principle whatever? Every body must see the impossibility of this. Notwithstanding this, it must be admitted, that in some, perhaps many the man of instances, the man of taste and genius, in matters principle. where no Aristotle has been before, satisfactorily to The man of taste is pave the way, may try many experiments, till he arrives at the most pleasing effect; but he would not even arrive at this, without some principle of his own; for the very circumstance of his being what is called a man of taste, shows that there must have been some standard, or at least some system of feeling, more refined than that of other men, to constitute that taste. He may, perhaps, say he has no principles, because they are so engrafted into his very feelings, that he can neither analyse nor describe them; and there can be no doubt, that if the man of taste, when he is composing and putting parts together, were only to ask himself, why such and such things are more pleasing than others, he would at length form to himself a code, |