man was lavished in ornamenting the sides, the backs being plain, and even without a lettering. From that period till the commencement of the present, very little improvement was made in bookbinding; but of late years the production of books has so greatly exceeded that of any former period, and caused the application of so much machinery, that bookbinding may fairly be said to have become a manufacturing business. Books, handsomely bound, gilt, lettered, embossed, and otherwise ornamented, no longer depend upon individual skill; but are produced, with extraordinary rapidity, by the aid of machinery. Thus, many of the principal London houses can put 1000 volumes in cloth, gilt, in six hours, provided the covers be previously got ready, and this can be done in less than two days!

AUTHORS.

"Hard is the task a letter'd fame to raise,

And poor, alas! the recompense it pays."

La Bruyère, many years ago, observed, that "'tis as much a trade to make a book as a clock;" c'est un metier que de faire un livre, comme de faire une pendule. But, since his day, many vast improvements have been made. Solomon said, that "of making many books there is no end ;" and Seneca complained, that, "as the Romans had more than enough of other things, so they had also of books and book-making. But Solomon and Seneca lived in an age when books were considered as a luxury, and not a necessary of life. The case is now altered; and though, perhaps, as Doctor Johnson observed, no man gets a bellyful of knowledge," every one has a mouthful.

66

ARCHITECTURE.

When mankind had no other shelter from the dews of night, or the burning sun of noon-day, but what could be derived from the trees of the forest, how anxious must they have been to improve their condition, and how solicitous to discover some mode of fortifying their miserable huts against the vicissitudes of the season! It is therefore not unlikely, that baked clay, in the form of bricks, was made use of for this important purpose, in an early state of society. This application of clay is, indeed, known to have been very ancient.

The Tower of Babel, 2247 years before Christ, was built with bricks; and when the Children of Israel sojourned in Egypt, 600 years afterwards, their taskmasters employed them chiefly in this kind of manufactory.-Exodus i. 13, 14; v. 6, 19.

Architecture may be said, however, to be in a measure coeval with the creation, that is, in its rude state. In the Sacred Scriptures we are told, that Cain, the second man, and the first born of human beings, "builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch." Whether this city con

sisted of a series of huts, constructed of branches and twigs of trees, like the wigwams of the American Indians, or of tents made by covering a pole with the skins of animals, we know not. Vitruvius, a celebrated architect in the age of Augustus, who wrote more than eighteen centuries ago, considered that men took their idea of huts from bird-nests, and constructed them of a conic figure; but finding this form inconvenient, on account of its inclined sides, gave them afterwards a cubical form. Four large upright beams, on which were placed four horizontally, he considers the ground-work of the building, the intervals being filled with branches interwoven, and covered with clay. The Egyptians, who, according to Scripture, were the first makers of bricks, gave an impetus to the improvement of architecture; next the Romans, and then the Greeks; then

"Palaces and lofty domes arose,

These for devotion, and for pleasure those."

In the Grecian style, less wealth, but more taste prevailed, and where, indeed, architecture may be said to have been cradled, since it is to the Greeks that we owe its true proportions, as exemplified in the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian Orders, which we derive from them. The Greek term for architect is apXTENT, which we find employed by Herodotus in the same sense as the word architect now is; he informs us that Rhocus a Samian was the architectōn or architect of the great Temple of Samos. We thus learn from positive testimony, that before the great buildings of Athens were erected, the term Architect, and the profession of an Architect, were distinctly recognised among the Greeks.

FIVE ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE.

The Greeks are entitled to the honour of having first combined elegance and symmetry with utility and convenience in building; and by them and the Romans were the Five Orders, into which architecture is generally divided, carried to perfection. These orders, as Mr. Alison, in his "Principles of Taste," well observes, "have different characters from several causes, and chiefly from the different quantity of matter in their entablatures. The Tuscan is distinguished by its severity; the Doric by its simplicity; the Ionic by its elegance; the Corinthian and Composite by their lightness and gaiety. To these characters their several ornaments are suited with consummate taste. Change these ornaments; give to the Tuscan the Corinthian Capital, or to the Corinthian the Tuscan, and every person would feel not only a disappointment from this unexpected composition, but a sentiment also of impropriety, from the appropriation of a grave or sober ornament to a subject of splendour, and of a rich or gaudy ornament to a subject of severity."

TUSCAN

The Tuscan Order had its name and origin in Tuscany, first inhabited by a colony from Lydia, whence it is likely the order is but the simplified Doric. On account of its strong and massive proportions, it is called the Rustic Order, and is chiefly used in edifices of that character, composed of few parts, devoid of ornament, and capable of supporting the heaviest weights. The Tuscan Order will always live where strength and solidity are required. The Etruscan architecture is nearly allied to the Grecian, but possesses an inferior degree of elegance. The Trajan Column at Rome, of this order, is less remarkable for the beauty of its proportions, than the admirable pillar with which it is decorated.

DORIC.

The Doric Order, so called from Dorus, who built a magnificent temple in the city of Argos, and dedicated it to Juno, is grave, robust, and of masculine appearance, whence it is figuratively termed the Herculean Order. The Doric possesses nearly the character for strength as the Tuscan, but is enlivened with ornaments in the frize and capital. In various ancient remains of this order, the proportions of the columns are different.

Ion, who built a temple to Apollo in Asia, taking his idea from the structure of man, gave six times the diameter of the base for the height of the column. Of this order is the Temple of Theseus, at Athens, built ten years after the battle of Marathon, and at this day almost entire.

IONIC.

The Ionic Order derived its origin from the people of Ionia. The column is more slender than the Doric, but more graceful. Its ornaments are elegant, and in a style between the richness of the Corinthian and the plainness of the Tuscan, simple, graceful, and majestic; whence it has been compared to a female, rather decently than richly decorated. When Hermogenes built the Temple of Bacchus at Teos, he rejected the Doric after the marbles had been prepared, and in its stead adopted the Ionic. The Temple of Diana at Ephesus, of Apollo at Miletus, and of the Delphic Oracle, were of this order.

CORINTHIAN.

This is the finest of all the orders, and was first adopted at Corinth, from whence it derives its name. Scamozzi calls it the Virginal Order, expressive of the delicacy, tenderness, and beauty of the whole composition. The most perfect model of the Corinthian Order, is generally allowed to be in the three columns in the Campo Vaccino at Rome, the remains of the Temple of Jupitor Stator.

The leaves of a species of Acanthus, (says an ingenious caterer of the literary world,) accidentally growing round a basket covered

with a tile, gave occasion to the capital of this beautiful order in architecture: an Athenian old woman happened to place a basket, with a tile laid over it, which covered the root of an Acanthus ; that plant shooting up the following spring, encompassed the basket all around, till, meeting with the tile, it curled back in a kind of scroll. Callimachus, an ingenious sculptor, passing by, took the hint, and instantly executed a capital on this plan, representing the tile by the Abacus, the leaves by the Volutes, and the basket by the vase or body of the capital. Abacus is the uppermost member of a column, serving as a kind of crowning both to the capital and the whole column. Vitruvius, and others after him, who gave the history of the orders, tells us, the Abacus was originally intended to represent a square tile over an urn, or rather, over a basket.

COMPOSITE.

The Composite Order was invented by the Romans, and partakes of the Ionic and Corinthian Orders, but principally of the latter, particularly in the leaves of the capitals. This order shows, that the Greeks had in the four original orders exhausted all the principles of grandeur, and that, to frame a fifth, they must necessarily combine the former.

GOTHIC.

The Gothic style of architecture is that in which the pointed arch applied in various ways, becomes a leading characteristic of the edifice. England, France, and Germany, respectively claim the invention of the Gothic; but all that can be safely asserted is, that it sprang up about the close of the twelfth century throughout the principal part of Europe. Gothic architecture has of late years excited much attention. The best work on the subject is Parker's Glossary.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF ANCIENT AND MODERN STRUCTURES, &c.

B. Christ.

2247. The Tower of Babel, built by Noah's Posterity in the Plains of Shinar.

1718. Sparta built.

1575. Pyramids of Egypt built.

1556. Cecrops founds Athens.

1546. Scamander, from Crete, founds Troy, which was burned by the Greeks on the 11th of June, 1184.

1252. The city of Tyre built.

1233. Carthage founded by a colony of Tyrians.

1176. Salamis, in Cyprus, built by Teucer.

1152. Ascanius builds the City of Alba Longa.

1141. The Temple of Ephesus destroyed by the Amazons,

1124. Thebes built by the Boeotians.

1012. Solomon begins the Temple of Jerusalem; 974, plundered by Sesac, king of Egypt; 586, destroyed by fire; 515, rebuilt; 170, plundered by Antiochus; 19, rebuilt by Herod. A. D. 70, Jerusalem destroyed; 130, rebuilt, and a temple dedicated to Jupiter; 1023;

B. Christ.

the temple plundered by the Caliph of Egypt; 1031, began to be rebuilt by Romanus; 1187, Jerusalem finally destroyed by Saladin. 992. Solomon's Palace finished.

986. Samas and Utica built.

974. Jerusalem taken, and the temple plundered by Sesac, king of Egypt. 869. The City of Carthage supposed to be built by Dido; destroyed by P. Scipio, 146; rebuilt by order of the Roman seuate, 123. 801. Capua, in Campania, built.

753. Rome built; plundered by Alaric, A. D. 410.

732. Syracuse supposed to be built about this time by a Colony of Corinthians, under Archias.

708. Ecbatana built by Dejoces.

707. The Parthians, on being expelled from Sparta, build Tarentum. 703. Corcyra built by the Corinthians.

658. Byzantium built about this time by a Colony of Argives.

630. Cyrene built by Battus, who begins that kingdom.

549. The Temple of Apollo, at Delphos, destroyed by Pisistratida.

539. Marseilles built by the Phocæans.

493. The Athenians built the Port of Piræus.

450. Temple of Minerva at Athens built.

434. Apollo's Temple at Delphos built; burnt down 362.

351. The Sidonians, being besieged by the Persian army, burn their city.

The monument of Mausolus erected.

315. Cassander rebuilds Thebes, and founds Cassandria. 312. Appian way to Rome made.

304. Antioch, Edessa, Laodicea, &c., founded by Seleucus. destroyed by the king of Persia, A. D. 540; rebuilt, 542. of Antioch destroyed by an earthquake, 580.

291. Seleucus builds and peoples about forty new cities in Asia. 283. The college and library of Alexandria founded.

267. A canal made by Ptolemy from the Nile to the Red Sea.

Antioch

The City

83. Sylla destroys the Roman capitol; 69 B. C. rebuilt; A. D. 80, destroyed by fire; was again rebuilt, and destroyed by lightning, A. D. 188. 55. Pompey builds a stone theatre for public amusements; destroyed by fire, A. D. 21.

50. Dover Castle built.

27. The Pantheon at Rome built; destroyed by fire, A. D. 80.

19. The aqueducts at Rome constructed by Agrippa.

10. The city of Cæsarea built by Herod; destroyed by an earthquake, A. D. 128.

A. D.

18. Tiberius built by Herod.

50. London built about this time by the Romans.

56. Rotterdam built about this time.

70. Jerusalem destroyed by Titus.

79. Herculaneum and Pompeii destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

80. Titus builds the hot baths and amphitheatre at Rome.

114. Trajan erects his column at Rome.

121. A wall built by Adrian between Carlisle and Newcastle.

130. Adrian rebuilds Jerusalem, and erects a temple to Jupiter.

134. Urbicus's wall built between Edinburgh and the Firth of Clyde.

209. Severus builds his wall across Britain.

260. The Temple of Diana burnt.

274. The Temple of the Sun built at Rome.

306. London Wall built.