It may also be worthy of a passing remark, that the architecture of Egypt, under this form, offers a powerful, though doubtless an accidental, illustration of local as well as of constructive fitness. Placed upon far-extended plains, spotted with palm trees, but diversified by no playfulness of natural scenery, there was, in the stern simplicity of its gigantic temples, a sullen grandeur well fitted to their situation, and which seemed to bespeak them the offspring of the soil on which they rested; while the absence of all minutiae of moulding rendered even their details conspicuous and effective at almost the greatest distance at which the eye could comprehend the mass. The adaptation to locality in these instances is the same, though developed by an opposite process, as that which makes the remains of pointed architecture, in our own country, to stand in such beautiful harmony with the variety and grouping of nature. It will be obvious, then, how naturally an advance, even to this limited extent of architectural skill, in the adoption of simple forms, decorated by equally simple mouldings, would stand associated with that degree of mental culture which can appreciate the beautiful and the sublime in nature; and which seeks, first, by the ready vehicle of oral tradition and the language of poetry, and afterwards by the aid of the imitative arts of sculpture and painting, to perpetuate the images of those objects which excite the feelings or gratify the eye. Such an opportunity, therefore, as that which the rise of architecture afforded for the exercise of the chisel, and even for the incorporation of its performances with itself, was not to be lost; and hence it was that the subjects of nature, and particularly the products of the vegetable world, were soon laid under contribution to the purposes of decorative taste. That the summit of the column should be the first object to tempt the sculptor to the display of his powers in the execution of foliage and enrichment, was to be expected from its elevated importance, its conspicuousness, and its security from the reach of injury; and, accordingly, this T part, under the character of the capital, speedily became distinguished for gracefulness of form and elaborate elegance of design, derived chiefly from imitations of the palm leaf (figs. 4, 5, 6.) and lotus flower. (fig. 7.) The idea of analogy between the top of a column and the blossoming summit of a tree being thus suggested, the fancied resemblance was shortly carried much farther; and hence, in many instances, the column now assumed the appearance of an assemblage of reeds banded together (figs. 2. and 8.), or sprang from the midst of a bed of leaves (fig. 2.), as an ornamental base. The reed, too, in a parallel arrangement of several pieces, formed a frequent feature of decoration in cornices, being disposed of vertically at short intervals. (See fig. 2.) Thus far, therefore, we think it must be admitted that, in these two principles of constructive fitness (we might almost say constructive necessity) and decorative relief, principally derived from the imitation of nature, we have a full developement of the origin and significancy of the essential parts of early architecture. The same principles will be found to extend their influence over all the minor members of composition; we shall, however, only notice, at present, that the form of apertures, as objects next in importance to the portico and the colonnade, was governed by a continued regard to fitness and utility; the upright parallelogram, or the quadrilateral opening diminishing as it ascends, being best adapted to the purposes of a doorway, from its suitableness to the admission of the human figure, and the facility with which its upper line can be formed, compared with that of more widely proportioned spaces. (fig. 9.) The latter reason, and the principle of unity, were sufficient to cause the same form to be retained in the windows which subsequent architecture adopted. But passing over minor details, and viewing the advance of art as introduced from Egypt into Greece, we shall continue to discern the operation of the same laws of fitness and decorative taste as before. Utility, thus, in answer to the demands of a more variable climate, required the substitution of the inclined roof and the pediment for the flat covering and the uniformly horizontal cornice. On the other hand, the imitative or decorative principle, nourished and stimulated as it was in the mind of the Greek by the beauties which nature had lavished on the landscapes of his country, as well as by that spirit of enterprise in art proper to a rising colony, gave birth to a thousand refinements and delicacies of architectural expression. Thus, comparing with its Egyptian originals the simplest and most ancient of the Grecian orders, the Doric, we see the massive reeds, which adorn the earlier shaft transforming themselves into light flutings (fig. 10. a); the capital is neither ponderous nor overcharged with embellishment, but only so large as is requisite for utility, and with just so much of simple ornament as may make it intermediately to combine in form and character with parts above and below. The primitive epistylium now assumes a double form by its increase in height, so as to present, in its upper surface, a frieze (b) on which the sculptor may exercise his talent, and where his range of basso relievo may be at once conspicuously displayed and effectively sheltered; while the lower surface (c) fulfils its original office, and by its moulding, or fillet of separation, forms a ground line to the compositions and groups above. The cornice, too, undergoes an entire re-modification, the Egyptian reeds being converted into the triglyphs (d) of the Grecian frieze; while the great hollow itself is reduced to, or superseded by, the square projection of the corona (e), better calculated to reject the rain, in connection with slight mouldings, sufficient to satisfy the eye by affording the appearance of support from beneath, and lightness of finish above. The raising of the cornices over the pediments by the addition of a cyma (f), which is wanting to the horizontal cornices, not only gives importance to the portico at each extremity of the temple, but is intended to effect a purpose of utility, by confining the water from the roof to its proper current; while, again, the antefixæ (g), which are seen ranged along the lateral cornices, forming so elegant a mode of termination to the raised joints of the tiling, furnish one proof, among many, that the Greeks, in common with all of after-ages, held it as an architectural axiom, based upon every supposition of constructive fitness and natural analogy, that the highest place should be occupied by the |