What celebrated horses are mentioned in history? Parse and give the derivation of the words in the lines

"Mountains on whose barren breast

The laboring clouds do often rest."

Which king do you think was most correctly termed Great, and why?

How does the story of "Quentin Durward" depart from history?

What is the difference between genius and talent? Write a story to illustrate the saying that every loud has a silver lining.

Give an account of the American forest-trees. These are such questions as the Querists put to one In answering, the rule is that there must be no direct assistance from elders in the family, except in suggesting books; and books, though freely consulted, must not be copied, except in making acknowledged quotations. The authorities consulted are written at the foot of the paper. Much information is thus gained and put together in a very pleasant manner, and it is well worth comparing the various opinions, or the different infor mation that each can obtain.

the art of planning and raising edifices, appears to have been among the earliest inventions. The first habitations of men were such as nature afforded, with but little labor on the part of the occupant, and sufficient to supply his simple wantsgrottoes, huts, and tents. In early times, the country of Judea, which is mountainous and rocky, offered cavernous retreats to the inhabitants, who accordingly used them instead of artificial places of shelter. From various passages in Scripture, it appears that these caves were often of great extent, for, in the sides of the mountain of Engedi, David and six hundred men concealed themselves. In the course of time, art was employed to fashion the rude cavernous retreats, and to excavate blocks by which rude buildings were compiled in more convenient situations. The progress of architecture, however, from its first dawn, differed in almost every different locality. Whatever rude structure the climate and materials of any country obliged its early inhabitants to adopt for their temporary shelter, the same structure, with all its prominent features, was afterward kept up by their refined and opulent posterity.

From the cause now mentioned the Egyptian style of building had its origin in the cavern and mound; the Chinese architecture, with its pavilion roofs and pointed minaret, is moulded from the Tar

tar tent; the Grecian is derived from the wooden cabin; and the Gothic from the bower of trees. It is evident that necessity as much as choice or chance led to the adoption of the different kinds of edifices.

After mankind had learned to build houses, they commenced the erection of temples to their gods, and these they made still more splendid than. private dwellings. Thus architecture became a fine art, which was first displayed on the temples, afterward on the habitations of princes and public buildings, and at last became a universal want in society.

Traces of these eras of advancement in the art of erecting buildings are found in various quarters of the globe, especially in Eastern countries, where the remains of edifices are discovered of which fable and poetry can alone give any account. The most remarkable of these vestiges of a primitive architecture are certain pieces of masonry in the island of Sicily, as well as in some other places, called the works of the Cyclops, an ancient and fabulous race of giants, mentioned by Homer in his Odyssey. By whom these walls were actually erected is unknown.

Of the progressive steps from comparative rudeness to elegance of design, history affords no certain account, and we are often left to gather facts from merely casual notices. The most ancient nations known to us, among whom architecture had made some progress, were the Babylonians, whose most celebrated buildings were the temple of Belus, the palace and the hanging gardens of Semiramis; the Assyrians, whose capital, Nineveh, was rich in splendid buildings; the Phoenicians, whose cities, Sidon, Tyre, Aradus, and Sarepta, were adorned with equal magnificence; the Israelites, whose temple was considered as a wonder of architecture; the Syrians

and the Philistines. No architectural monument of these nations has, however, been transmitted to us; but we find subterraneous temples of the Hindoos, hewn out of the solid rock, upon the islands Elephanta and Salsetta, and in the mountains of Elora. These temples may be reckoned among the most stupendous ever executed by man. The circuit of the excavations is about six miles. The temples are 100 feet high, 145 feet long, and 62 feet wide. They contain thousands of figures, appearing, from the style of their sculpture, to be of ancient Hindoo origin. Every thing about them, in fact, indicates the most persevering industry in executing one of the boldest plans.

EGYPTIAN STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE.

All the architectural remains of ancient times sink into insignificance when compared with those of Egypt. The obelisks, pyramids, temples, palaces, and other structures of this country, are on the grandest scale, and such as could only have been perfected by a people considerably advanced in refinement. The elementary features of Egyptian architecture were chiefly as follows: 1. Their walls were of great thickness, and sloping on the outside. This feature is supposed to have been derived from the mud walls, mounds, and caverns of their ancestors. 2. The roofs and covered ways were flat, or without pediments, and composed of blocks of stone, reaching from one wall or column to another. The principle of the arch, although known to the Egyptians, was seldom if ever employed. 3. Their columns were numerous, close, short, and very large, being sometimes ten or twelve feet in diameter. They were generally without bases, and had a great variety of capitals, from a simple square block, ornamented with hieroglyphics or faces, to an elaborate composition of palm-leaves, not unlike the Corinthian capital. 4. They used a sort of'concave entablature or cornice, composed of vertical flutings or leaves, and a winged globe in the center. 5. Pyramids, well known for their prodigious size, and obelisks, composed of a single stone, often exceeding seventy feet in height, are structures peculiarly Egyptian. 6. Statues of enormous size, sphinxes carved in stone, and sculptures in outline of fabulous deities and ani

mals, with innumerable hieroglyphics, are the decorative objects which belong to this style of architecture.

The main character of Egyptian architecture is that of great strength with irregularity of taste. This is observable in the pillars of the temples, the parts on which the greatest share of -skill has been lavished. The preceding figures are examples. In these columns we may notice that sturdiness is the prevailing characteristic. The design has been the support of a great weight, and that without any particular regard to propor. tion or elegance, either as a whole or in parts. When assem. bled in rows or groups, the columns had an imposing effect, because, from their height and thickness, they filled the eye and induced the idea of placid and easy endurance. In Fig. 5, which represents the exterior of a temple, this simple and imposing character is conspicuous.

FIG. 5.

GRECIAN STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE. From Egypt, the architectural art spread to Greece, where it passed from the gigantic to the chaste and elegant. The period in which it flourished in the greatest perfection was that of Pericles, about 440 before Christ, when some of the finest temples at Athens were erected. After this, it declined with other arts, and was carried to Rome, where. however, it never attained the same high character. Before describing the various orders of Grecian and Roman architecture, it will be advantageous to explain the terms ordinarily employed in refer. ence to the component parts of buildings.

EXPLANATION OF TERMS.

The front or façade of a building, made after the ancient models, or any portion of it, may represent three parts, occu pying different heights: The pedestal is the lower part, usually supporting a column; the single pedestal is wanting in most antique structures, and its place supplied by a stylobate; the stylobate is either a platform with steps, or a continuous pedestal, supporting a row of columns. The lower part of a finished pedestal is called the plinth; the middle part is the die, and the upper part the cornice of the pedestal, or surbase. The column is the middle part, situated upon the pedestal or stylobate. It is commonly detached from the wall, but is some. times buried in it for half its diameter, and is then said to be engaged. Pilasters are square or flat columns attached to walls. The lower part of a column, when distinct, is called the base; the middle, or longest part, is the shaft; and the upper or ornamented part, is the capital. The swell of the column is called the entasis. The height of columns is measured in diameters of the column itself, taken always at the base. The entablature is the horizontal continuous portion which rests upon the top of a row of columns. The lower part

of the entablature is called the architrave or epistylium. The middle part is the frieze, which, from its usually containing sculpture, was called zophorus by the ancients. The upper or projecting part is the cornice. A pediment is the triangular face produced by the extremity of a roof. The middle or flat portion inclosed by the cornice of the pediment is called the tympanum. Pedestals for statues, erected on the summit and extremities of a pediment, are called acroteria. An attic is an upper part of a building, terminated at top by a horizontal line instead of a pediment. The different mouldings in architecture are described from their sections, or from the profile which they present when cut across. Of these, the torus is a convex moulding, the section of which is a semi-circle, or nearly so; the astragal is like the torus, but smaller; the ovalo is convex, but its outline is only the quarter of a circle; the echinus resembles the ovalo, but its outline is spiral, not circular; the scotia is a deep concave moulding; the cavetto is also a concave, and occupying but a quarter of a circle; the cymatium is an undulated moulding, of which the upper part is concave and the lower convex; the ogee or talon is an inverted cyma. tium; the fillet is a small square or flat moulding. In architectural measurement, a diameter means the width of a column at the base. A module is half a diameter. A minute is a sixtieth part of a diameter.

In representing edifices by drawings, architects make use of the plan, elevation, section, and perspective. The plan is a map or design of a horizontal surface, showing the ichnographic projection, or groundwork, with the relative position of walls, columns, doors, etc. The elevation is the orthographic projection of a front or vertical surface; this being represented, not as it is actually seen in perspective, but as it would appear if seen from an infinite distance. The section shows the interior of a building, supposing the part in front of an intersecting plane to be removed. The perspective shows the building as it actually appears to the eye, subject to the laws of scenographic perspective. The three former are used by architects for purposes of admeasurement; the latter is used also by painters, and is capable of bringing more than one side into the same view, as the eye actually perceives them. As the most approved features in modern architecture are derived from buildings which are more or less ancient, and as many of these buildings are now in too dilapidated a state to be easily copied, recourse is had to such initiative restorations, in drawings and models, as can be made out from the fragments and ruins which remain. In consequence of the known simplicity and regularity of most antique edifices, the task of restoration is less difficult than might be supposed. The groundwork, which is commonly extant, shows the length and breadth of the building, with the position of its walls, doors, and columns. A single column, whether standing or fallen, and a fragment of the entablature, furnish data from which the remainder of the colonnade, and the height of the main body, can be made out.

Grecian temples are well known to have been constructed in the form of an oblong square or parallelogram, having a colonnade or row of columns without, and a walled cell within. The part of the colonnade which formed the front portico was calied the pronaos, and that which formed the back part the

posticus. There were, however, various kinds of temples, the styles of which differed; thus, the prostyle had a row of columns at one end only; the amphiprostyle had a row at each end; the peripteral had a row all round, with two inner ones at each end; and the dipteral had a double row all round, with two inner ones at each end, making the front three columns deep. The theater of the Greeks which was afterward copied by the Romans, was built in the form of a horseshoe, being semicir cular on one side and square on the other. The semicirculat part, which contained the audience, was filled with concentric seats, ascending from the center to the outside. In the middle or bottom was a semicircular floor, called the orchestra. The opposite, or square part, contained the actors. Within this was erected, in front of the audience, a wall, ornamented with columns and sculpture, called the scena. The stage or floor between this part and the orchestra was called the proscenium. Upon this floor was often erected a movable wooden stage, called by the Romans pulpitum. The ancient theater was open to the sky, but a temporary awning was erected to shelter the audience from the sun and rain.

ORDERS.

Aided, doubtless, by the examples of Egyptian art, the Greeks gradually improved the style of architecture, and originated those distinctions which are now called the "Orders of Architecture." By this phrase is understood certain modes of proportioning and decorating the column and its entablature. They were in use during the best days of Greece and Rome, for a period of six or seven centuries. They were lost sight of in the dark ages, and again revived by the Italians at the time of the restoration of letters. The Greeks had three orders, called the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthan. These were adopted and modified by the Romans, who also added two others called the Tuscan and Composite.

The Doric Order.—This is the earliest of the Greek orders, and we see in it a noble simplicity on which subsequent orders were founded. One of the most correct examples is that given in Fig. 6. The shaft of the Doric column had no base, ornamental or otherwise, but rose directly from the smooth pavement or stylobate. It had twenty flutings, which were superficial, and separated by angular edges. The perpendicular outline was nearly straight. The Doric capital was plain, being formed of a few annulets or rings, a large echinus, and a flat stone at top called the abacus. The architrave was plain; the frieze was intersected by oblong projections called triglyphs, di vided into three parts by vertical furrows, and or namented beneath by gutta, or drops. The spaces between the triglyphs were called metopes and commonly contained sculptures. To have a just idea of the Doric, therefore, we must go back to the pure Grecian era. The finest examples are those of the temple of Theseus and the Parthenon (Fig. 7) at Athens. The Parthenon, which is now a complete ruin, has formed a model in modern architecture. It was built by the architect Ictinus, during the administration of Pericles, and its decorative sculp

FIG. 6.