Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/16

 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [July, Carthaginians, the Latins, and the Celts — the massive rock-cut temples of India, the flimsjr pagodas of China, the colossal fanes, pyramids and tombs of Egypt, the cyclopean remains of the Pelopon- nesus, the Etruscan relics of Italy, the beautiful vestiges of Greece, the ponder- ous ruins of Rome, the unhewn altars of the Britons, the round-towers of Ire- land; the Ityzantine, Saxon, Norman, and Gothic churches; the timber-framed tene- ments of feudal England, the mounds of North America; the Mexican, Guatema- lan and Peruvian terrace-temples ; the wigwam of the savage, the fortalice of the Northman, the block-house of the borderer, the hut of the railroad pioneer, the cot of the mechanic, and the palace of the merchant prince — all have imme- diate connection with the needs and luxuries, the virtues and vices, the pride and worship, the hopes and fears of man ; and all, consequently, appeal to every heart. If dancing is the "poetry of motion," ARCHITECTURE is the poetry of rest. It has been aptly called " frozen music ;" and, as music, in common with all the sciences and arts, is based upon the im- mutable principles of proportion, we are brought, by however fanciful a road, di- rectly to those severe laws of the higher mathematics, which govern all the satis- factory productions of mankind. Thence spring adaptation and relation; and thence again issue gratification and com- fort. ARCHITECTURE holds, always has held, and ever will, a high place in the literature of the world : and whether in the oriental, or the occiden- tal, the classic or the romantic, the He- braic or the Evangelic, allusion or in- sistence are frequent. The palace of Aladdin, fashioned in a single night by the slaves of the lamp ; the pile for which David had, his life long, accumu- lated materials, but which he was not allowed to commence building, because he was a man of blood ; the temple of Solomon — whose components, cut at the quarry, or hewn in the forest, and then fitted and numbered, were brought labo- riously, through many months, o'er many miles, from the distant mountains, and finally set up at Jerusalem, without the sound of a hammer — that House of the Lord, upon whose roof of resplendent gold no bird ever lighted ; the grand elliptical sweep of the Coliseum, where Roman thousands criticized the volun- tary or forced hazard of the gladiators, and gloated upon the martyrdom of the early Christians ; the Saviour's reference to counting the cost of a tower, lest, haply the foundation being laid, the pro- jector should not be able to finish, and so be mocked ; His parable of the wise man, who digged deep and built his house upon a rock — these, and myriad other associations, flit before us, or abide as long as there remains a man to utter, or a man to listen. It must be remembered that the best human structures are prone to injury and decay. The gale, the storm, the tempest, the tornado, and the earth- quake, in varying degree, agi-eeably to climate and to region, effect much. But the unseen or hardly-noticed agents, diyness, moisture, heat, cold, dew, mist, thaw, frost, are the chief sappers. Frost, which cracks and rends the mountains, breaking their solid strata into detached rocks, toppling them down into the val- leys, grinding or wasting them into loose soil, must level the mole-hills of mankind. Conformably to purpose, the best is ever the cheapest; the chaste is longest in vogue. The pretentious disappoints, and only the suitable confers happiness. Let us, then, plan sensibly, and build well ; satisfying our desires for both ease and beaut} 1 -, and doing something for posterity as well as ourselves ; for, in the lapse of time, all things mundane " Are melted into air — thin air ; — And like the baseless fabric of a vision, The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like an insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a wreck behind."