Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/430

418 only the best, and make it immortal. . . may be justly called the mainspring of all Hellenic thought, taste, and feeling."

Rome was indebted to Etruria and Greece for the elements of her architecture. From the former the arch, vault, and Tuscan order were derived, while the latter contributed the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. In amphitheaters, aqueducts, and baths she easily surpassed other nations, while in the basilica or law court she furnished a design for Gothic cathedrals and the churches of the Renaissance. Classical ideas prevailed over all countries under Roman rule until the division of the empire. Subsequently the Byzantine style was evolved in the time of Constantine, who spent immense sums in beautifying Byzantium and Constantinople. To this we owe "one of the finest constructive inventions," the pendentive system.

Early Christian architecture was exemplified in the basilicas, which were built in the form of a Latin cross; the introduction of the apse and a great increase of interior decoration were also marked features of the style. This was followed by the round-arched Gothic or Romanesque.

Meanwhile with the Moorish dominion came the Saracenic style, which may be studied in the mosques and tombs of the East and in the palaces of Spain. Although contributing no new principle, "the world owes it a debt of gratitude for its ornamental exuberance controlled by good taste." Interiors were made exquisite with fretwork, mosaics, and jeweled inlays, while minarets and domes of graceful proportions were beautified with tiles "belonging to a lost ceramic art."

Gothic architecture is considered by Mr. Mathews in its two developments, ecclesiastical and secular, the different periods and characteristics being very carefully and clearly explained.

Two chapters are devoted to the Renaissance, which the author has treated in more detail in another volume, and the book concludes with an examination of American architecture. The high buildings of the present day are relegated to the province of engineering; most of them are "attenuated monstrosities." However, "when a whole block is devoted to such a structure, and the design is treated pyramidally, the result may be stately and imposing."

The work is amply illustrated, and a bibliography, index, and glossary add much to its convenience and value.

In his recent work on economics Prof. H. J. Davenport makes large use of the suggestive mode of imparting knowledge. He asks suggestive questions at the beginning of each chapter, review questions at the end, and topical questions in the margins. In preparing the book he has evidently had college students in mind for whom the instructor would be available to supplement the text with lectures and answers to questions. The vigorous thinker might dispense with such aid, but the average learner is very often left by suggestive teaching encumbered with many hazy ideas and exasperated with many unanswered queries. Our author generally avoids short and precise definitions. He seeks to give an understanding of the nature of utility, wealth, value, capital, etc., by leading the reader to look at each from different points of view and thus to build up in his mind