Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/310

 278 GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. Pakt I. Domestic Architecture. We have nothing left but imperfect verbal descriptions of the domestic, and even of the palatial architecture of Greece, and, conse- quently, can only judge imperfectly of its forms. Unfortunately, too, Pompeii, though but half a Greek city, belongs to too late and too corrupt an age to enable us to use it even as an illustration ; but we may rest assured that hi this, as in everything else, the Greeks dis- played the same exquisite taste which pervades not only their monu- mental architecture, but all their works in metal or clay, down to the meanest object, which have been preserved to our times. It is probable that the forms of their houses were much more irre- gular and picturesque than we are in the habit of supposing them to have been. They seem to have taken such pains in their temples — in the Erechtheium, for instance, and at Eleusis — to make every part tell its own tale, that anything like forced regularity must have been offen- sive to them, and they would probably make every apartment exactly of the dimensions required, and group them so that no one should under any circumstance be confounded with another. This, however, with all the details of their domestic arts, must now remain to us as mere speculation, and the architectural history of Greece must be confined to her temples and monumental erections. These suffice to explain the nature and forms of the art, and to assign to it the rank of the purest and most intellectual of all the styles which have yet been invented or practised in any part of the world.