Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/272

 240 GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. Part I- example of a Doric temple that we know of — that of Corinth — would appear to belong to very nearly the same age, so that the 7th century B.C.- may probably be taken as the period when the old Turanian form of Pelasgic art gave way before the sterner and more perfect creations of a purer Hellenic design. Perhaps it might be more correct to say that the Hellenic history of Greece commenced with the Olympiads (B.C. 776), but before that kingdon bloomed into perfection an older civilization had passed away, leaving little beyond a few tombs and works of public utility as records of its prior existence. It left, how- ever, an undying influence which can be traced through every subse- quent stage of Grecian history, which gave form to that wonderful artistic development of art, the principal if not the only cause of the unrivalled degree of perfection to which it subsequently attained.