Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/258

 236 A HISTORY or ART IN CIIALD.EA AND ASSYRIA. In these days the historian sets himself with devotion to follow in all its involutions the long chain of thought and effort by which man has been led from his primitive barbarism to the well- being of modern civilization, and to his domination every day more complete and more intelligent over the minor forces of nature. It is the duty of criticism, as its methods gradually perfect themselves, to acid daily to its perspicacity and powers of observation, and to lessen as much as possible the occasions, still so numerous, when the thread of evidence breaks in its hands and the true relations of facts to each other become ob- scured. Even yet we cannot say for certain to which nation of the ancient world the invention of the arch belongs. In those remote ages the principle may have been discovered more than once or twice in different and distant countries whose inhabitants were busied over the same task. We have no reason to believe that Chaldxa learnt the secret from Egypt, or Etruria from the East. It is none the less true, however, that the unknown archi- tects of Babylon and Nineveh made full use of it at an earlier date and in more intelligent fashion than any of their rivals. To them must be given the credit of being the masters and art- ancestors of the men who built the Pantheon and the Church 01 Saint Sophia, Santa Maria del Eiore, and Saint Peter's in Rome, and more especially of those great modern engineers to whom the principle of the arch has been a chief element in their success. 6. Secondary Forms. (Doors, windows, steles, altars, obelisks, mouldings.} WE have been obliged to dwell at lenqth on the arch and the o o column because those two elements of construction are of the greatest importance to all who wish to gain a true idea of Mesopotamian art and of its influence upon neighbouring .peoples and over subsequent developments of architecture. On the other hand we shall have very little to say upon what, in speaking of Egyptian art, we called secondary forms. 1 We have already had occasion to speak of some of these, such as windows and doors. We have explained how the nature of his materials and the heat of the climate led the architect to 1 Art in Ancient Egypt, vol. ii. cb. ii.