Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/136

 108 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [August, considerations must be constantly kept in view, namely, the intention, and the matter used to express that intention ; but the intention is founded on a con- viction, that the matter wrought will fully suit the purpose. He, therefore, who is not familiar with both branches of the art, has no pretension to the title of an architect. An architect should be ingenious and apt in the acquisition of knowledge. Deficient in either of these, he cannot be a perfect master. He should be a good writer, a skilful draftsman, versed in geometry and optics, expert at figures, acquainted with history, informed on the principles of natural and moral philosophy, somewhat of a musician, not ignorant of the sciences, both of law and physic, nor of the motions, laws and relation to each other of the heavenly bodies. By means of the first- named acquirement, he is to commit to writing his observations and experience in order to assist his memory Draw- ing is employed to represent the forms of his designs. Geometry affords much aid to the architect ; to it he owes the use of the right line and circle, the level and the square, whereby his delineations of buildings on plane surfaces are greatly facilitated. The science of optics en- ables him to introduce, with judgment, the requisite quantity of light, accord- ing to the aspect. Arithmetic estimates the cost, and aids in the measurement of the work ; this, assisted by the laws of geometry, determines those abstruse questions, wherein the different propor- tions of some parts to others are in- volved. Unless acquainted with his- tory, he will be unable to account for the use of many ornaments, which he may have occasion to introduce. For instance, should any one wish for in- formation ou The Origin of Caryatides, Those draped matronal figures, crowned with a mutulus and cornice, he will ex- plain it by the following history : Carya, a city of Peloponnesus, joined the Persians in their war against the Greeks. These, in return for the treach- ery, after having freed themselves, by a most glorious victory, from the intended Persian yoke, unanimously resolved to levy war against the Caryans. Carya was, in consequence, taken and de- stroyed, its male population extin- guished, and its matrons carried into slavery. That these circumstances might be better remembered, and the nature of the triumph perpetuated, the victors represented them draped, and apparently suffering under the burthen with which they were loaded, to expiate the crime of their native city. Thus, in their edifices, did the ancient archi- tects, by the use of these statues, hand down to posterity a memorial of the crime of the Caryans. Origin of Atlantes.* Again : A small number of Lacedae- monians, under the command of Pau- sanius, the son of Cleombrotus, over- threw the prodigious army of the Per- sians at the battle of Platea. After a triumphal exhibition of the spoil and booty, the proceeds of the valor and devotion of the victors were applied by the government to the erection of the Persian portico ; and, as an appropriate monument of the victoiy, and a trophy for the admiration of posterity, its roof was supported by statues of the bar- barians in their magnificent costume; indicating, at the same time, the merited contempt due to their haughty projects; intimidating their enemies by fear of their courage; and acting as a stimulus to their fellow-countrymen, to be always in readiness for the defence of the na- tion. This is the origin of the Persian order for the support of an entablature ; an invention which has enriched many a design with the singular variety it exhibits. —Ed.
 * Also called Atlantides and sometimes Telamones.