Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/59

 A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE ON THE COMPARATIVE METHOD. PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE " Study mere shelter, now for him, and him ; Nay, even the worst — just house them ! Any cave Suffices ; throw out earth ! A loop hole ? Brave ! . . . But here's our son excels At hurdle weaving any Scythian ; fells Oak and devises rafters : dreams and shapes His dream into a door post, just escapes The mystery of hinges, . . . The goodly growth Of brick and stone ! Our building-pelt was rough, But that descendants' garb suits well enough A portico-contriver. The work marched : step by step — a workman fit Took each, nor too fit -to one task, one time — No leaping o'er the petty to the prime, When just the substituting osier lithe For brittle bulrush, sound wood for soft withe, To further loam-and-rough-cast work a stage. Exacts an architect, exacts an age." — Browning. The origins of architecture, although lost in the mists of antiquity, must have been connected intimately with the endeavours of man to provide for his physical wants. It has been truly said that protection from the inclemency of the seasons was the mother of architecture. According to Vitruvius, man in his primitive savage state began to imitate the nests of birds and the lairs of beasts, commencing with arbours of twigs covered with mud, then huts formed of branches of trees and covered with turf (No. 2 c). Other writers indicate three types of primitive dwellings — the caves (No. 2 h) or rocks or those occupied in hunting or fishing, F.A. B