Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/16

 X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 1. Influences — continued. iv. Religion. V. Social and Political, vi. Historical, 2. Architectural Character. 3. Examples of Buildings. 4. Comparative. A. Plan, or general distribution of the building. B. Walls, their construction and treatment. C. Openings, their character and shape. D. Roofs, their treatment and development. E. Columns, their position, structure, and decoration. F. Mouldings, their form and decoration. G. Ornament, as applied in general to any building. 5. Reference Books. Section i is divided into the six leading influences that may be expected to shape the architecture of any country or people) the first three being structural, the next two the civilizing forces, and the last containing those external historical events which may alter or vary the foregoing. Section 2 describes the character of the architecture, that is, its special quality, and the general effect produced by the buildings as a whole. Section 3 contains the examples, i.e. the chief buildings in each style, briefly named and described, being the corpus, which the preceding influences affect and from which the subsequent comparative analysis is deduced. Section 4 is this comparative analysis, in which every style of architecture is regarded as the solution of certain fundamental problems, i.e. each building must have all or most of the parts A to G, and consequently there is both interest and instruction to be gained in learning and comparing how each style has solved these points of the problem. Section 5 gives authorities and more especially directs the reader who wishes to pursue the study of any style in further detail. In treating of the buildings themselves under Section 3 the authors have endeavoured to avoid long descriptions, which are