The

FIG. 8.

The Ionic Order.-In this order the shaft begins to lengthen, and to possess a degree of ornament, but still preserving a great degree of simplicity of outline. In the best examples, as represented in Fig. 8, the column was eight or nine diameters in height. It had a base often composed of a torus, a scotia, and a second torus, with intervening fillets. This is called the Attic base. Others were used in different parts of Greece. The capital of this order consisted of two parallel double scrolls, called volutes, occupying opposite sides, and supporting an abacus, which was nearly square, but moulded at its edges. These volutes have been considered as copied from ringlets of hair, or perhaps from the horns of Jupiter Ammon. Ionic entablature consisted of an architrave and frieze, which were continuous or unbroken, and a cornice of various successive mouldings, at the lower part of which was often a row of dentels, or square teeth. The examples at Athens of the Ionic order were the temple of Erectheus, and the temple on the Ilissus, both now destroyed. Modern imitations are common in public edifices. The Corinthian order.-This was the lightest and most highly decorated of the Grecian orders. The base of the column resembled that of the Ionic, but was more complicated. The shaft was often ten diameters in height, and was fluted like the Ionic. The capital was shaped like an inverted bell, and covered on the outside with two rows of leaves of: the plant acanthus, above which were eight pairs of small volutes. Its abacus was moulded and concave on its sides, and truncated at the corners, with a flower on the center of each side. The entablature of the Corinthian order resembled that of the Ionic, but was more complicated and ornamented, and had, under the cornice, a row of large oblong projections, bearing a leaf or scroll on their under side, and called modillions. No vestiges of this order are now found in the remains of Corinth, and the most legitimate example at Athens is in the choragic monument of Lysicrates. The Corinthian order was much employed in the subsequent structures of Rome and its colonies. The finest Roman example of this order is that of

FIG. 9.

three columns in the Campo Vaccina, at Rome, which are commonly considered as the remains of the temple of Jupiter Stator. Caryatides.-The Greeks sometimes departed so far from the strict use of the orders as to introduce statues, in the place of columns, to support the entablature. Statues of slaves, heroes, and gods, appear to have been employed occasionally for this purpose. The principal specimen of this kind of architecture which remains, is in a portico called Pandroseum, attached to the temple of Erectheus at Athens, in which statues of Carian females, called Caryatides, are substituted for columns.

ROMAN STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE. Roman architecture possessed no originality of any value; it was founded on copies of the Greek models, and these were modified to suit circumstances and tastes. The number of orders was augmented by the addition of the Tuscan and Composite.

Tuscan order.-This order is not unlike the Doric, and is chaste and elegant. As represented in Fig. 10, the shaft had a simple base, ornamented with one torus, and an astragal below the capital. The proportions were seven diameters in height. Its entablature, somewhat like the Ionic, consisted of plain running surfaces.

The Composite order.-Of this there were various kinds, differing less or more either in the ornaments of the column or in the entablature. The simplest of this hybrid order was that which we represent in Fig. 11, which may be observed to combine parts and proportions of the Doric, the Ionic, and the Tuscan.

a

FIG. 10.

The temples of the Romans sometimes resembled those of the Greeks, but often differed from them. The Pantheon, which is the most perfectly preerved temple of the Augus.an age, is circular building, lighted only from an aperture in the dome, and having a Corinthian portico in front. The amphitheater differed from the theater, in being a completely circular or rather elliptical building, filled on all sides with ascending seats for spectators, and leaving only the central spac, called the arena, for the cor batants and public shows. The Coliseum is a stupendous structure of this kind. The aqueducts were stone canals, supported on massive arcades, and conveying large streams of water for the supply of cities. The triumphal arches were commonly solid oblong structures ornamented with sculptures, and open with lofty arches for passengers below. The edifice of this kind most entire in the present day is the triumphal arch of Constantine, at Rome, represented in Fig. 13.

FIG. 11.

FIG. 12.

The basilica of the Romans was a hall of justice, used also as an exchange or place of meeting for merchants. It was lined on the inside with colonnades of two stories, or with two tiers of columns, one over the other. The earliest Christian churches at Rome were sometimes called basilica, from their possessing an internal colonnade. The monumental pillars were towers in the shape of a column on a pedestal, bearing a statue on the summit, which was approached by a spiral staircase within. Sometimes, however, the column was solid. The therma, or baths, were vast structures, in which multitudes of people could bathe at once. They were supplied with warm and cold water and fitted up with numerous rooms for purposes of exercise and

recreation.

FIG. 13.

ITALIAN STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE.

After the dismemberment of the Roman empire, the arts degenerated so far that a custom became prevalent of erecting/ new buildings with the fragments of old ones, which were di

lapidated and torn down for the purpose. This gave rise to an irregular style of building, which continued to be imitated, especially in Italy, during the dark ages. It consisted of Grecian and Roman details, combined under new forms, and piled up into structures wholly unlike the unique originals. Hence the names Græco-Gothic and Romanesque architecture have been given to it. After this came the Italian style, which was professedly a revival of the classic styles of Greece and Rome, but adopted to new manners and wants-a kind of transition from ancient to modern times. Its great master was Andrea Palladio, a Venetian (born 1518-died 1580).

FIG. 14.

There is considerable variety and beauty in the foliate and other enrichments of an architectural character in many structures in Italy, but very little ornament enters into the columnar composition of Italian architecture. Friezes, iustead of being sculptured, are swollen; the shafts of columns are very seldom fluted, and their capitals are generally poor in the extreme; mouldings are indeed sometimes carved, but not often; rustic masonry, ill-formed festoons, and gouty balustrades, for the most part supply the place of chaste and classic orna

ments.

THE CHINESE STYLE.

The ancient Tartars and wandering shepherds of Asia appear to have lived from time immemorial in tents, a kind of habitation adapted to their erratic life. The Chinese have made the tent the elementary feature of their architecture; and of their

style any one may form an idea, by inspecting the figures which

are depicted upon common China ware. Chinese roofs are concave on the upper side, as if made of canvas instead of wood. A Chinese portico is not unlike the awnings spread over shop windows in summer time. The veranda, sometimes copied in dwelling-houses, is a structure of this sort. The Chinese towers and pagodas have concave roofs, like awnings, projecting over their several stories. A representation of this barbaric style of erection is given in Fig. 15. Such structures are built with wood or brick; stone is seldom employed.

FIG. 15.

middle of the thirteenth century, and was zealously pursued as the leading fashion for ecclesiastical structures all over Europe. Executed by a class of skilled artisans, who wandered from country to country, the finest specimens of the pointed style are the cathedrals of Strasburg, Cologne, and Antwerp, and the splendid abbeys of Melrose and Westminster.

In this fanciful and picturesque style of architecture, the slender columns, always united in groups, rise to a lofty height, resembling the giants of the grove, in whose dark shade the ancient Teuton used to build his altar. In the obscure depth of the dome, the mind is awakened to solemn devotional feelings.

When the circular arch totally disappeared in 1220, the early English style commenced. The windows of this style were at first very narrow in comparison with their height; they were called lancet-shaped, and were considered very elegant; two or three were frequently seen together, connected by dripstones. In a short time, however, the windows became wider, and divisions and ornaments were introduced. Sometimes the same window was divided into several lights, and frequently finished at the top by a light in the form of a lozenge, circle, trefoil, or other ornament.

About the year 1300, the architecture became more ornamental, and from this circumstance received the name of the decorated English style, which is considered the most beautiful for ecclesiastical buildings.

The transition from the decorated to the florid or perpendicular style was very gradual. Ornament after ornament was added, till simplicity disappeared beneath the extravagant additions; and about the year 1380, the architecture became so overloaded and profuse, that it obtained the title of florid, which by some persons is called the perpendicular, because the lines of division run in upright or perpendicular lines from top to bottom, which is not the case in any other style.

DEFINITIONS OF PARTS.

Gothic architecture being for the most part displayed in ecclesiastical edifices, it may be of service to explain the usual plan of construction of these buildings. A church or cathedral is commonly built in the form of a cross, having a tower, lantern, or spire, erected over

the place of intersection.

The part of the cross situ

Nam

North Transept.

Choir.

ated toward the west is called the nave. The opposite or eastward part is called the choir, and within this is the chancel. The transverse portion, forming the arms of the cross, is called the transept, one limb being called the northern and the other the southern transept.

Generally, the nave is larger than the choir. If the nave, choir, and transepts be all of the same dimensions the form is that of a Greek cross. When the nave is longer than the other parts, forming a cross of an ordinary shape, the edifice is said to be in the form of a Latin cross. The different open parts usually receive the name of ailes or aisles, from a word signi

FIG. 17

The walls of Gothic churches, on which the outer strain of the roof arches ultimately rests, require to be of great strength; and the impart ing this necessary degree of resistance without clumsiness is the glory of this style of architecture. The plan adopted is to erect exterior buttresses (Fig. 18). These rise by gradations from a broad basis to narrow pointed pinnacles, and placed opposite the points of pressure, secure, without the slightest appearance of clumsiness, the gen. eral stability of the building. Slanting braces, which spring from the buttresses to the upper part of the roof, are called flying buttresses; such, however, are not always required in those modern edifices in which the roof is of wood and lead.

FIG. 18.

The summit or upper edge of the wall, if straight, is called a parapet; if indented, a battlement. Gothic windows were commonly crowned with an acute arch; they were long and narrow, or, if wide, were divided into perpendicular lights by mullions. The lateral spaces on the upper and outer side of the arch are spandrelles; and the ornaments in the top, collectively taken, are the tra cery. An oriel, or bay window, is a window which projects from the general surface of the wall. A wheel, or rose window, is large and circular. A corbel is a bracket or short projection from a wall, serving to sustain a statue or the springing of an arch. The Gothic term gable indicates the erect end of a roof, and answers to the Grecian pediment, but is more acute.

NORMAN, TUDOR, AND MODERN GOTHIC. Throughout England may be seen many aged castles, some

still in a state of good preservation, but the greater number in ruins, and occupying, with their picturesque remains, the summit of a rising ground or rocky precipice. These castles are of a style which prevailed during the feudal ages in Europe, and was brought to this country by the Normans, who erected them as fastnesses, into which they might retire and oppress the country at pleasure.

The feudal castles in England, like those on the Rhine, consisted for the most part of a single strong tower or keep, the walls of which were from six to ten feet thick, and the windows only holes of one or two feet square, placed at irreg. ular intervals. The several floors were built on arches, and the roof was flat or battlemented, with notches in the parapet, from which the inhabitants or retainers of the chieftain might defend themselves with instruments of war. The accommodations for living were generally mean, and what would now be called uncomfortable. Around or in front of the main tower there was usually a court-yard, protected by a high wall, and the arched entra ice was carefully secured by a falling gate or portcellis. Outside, there was in many cases a regular wet ditch or fosse. Castles of greater magnitude consisted of two or more towers and inner buildings, including a chapel and offices for domestics, and stables for horses and other animals. Some of them were on a great scale, and possessed considerable grandeur of design.

As society advanced and civil tranquillity was established, these military strengths gradually assumed a character of greater elegance and less the appearance of defense. The wet ditch disappeared, and was superseded by a lawn or shrubbery. Instead of the draw bridge and portcullis, there was a regular approach and gate of ordinary construction. The windows became larger, and were fitted with glass frames, an stone was abandoned for the greater comfort of wooden floors. Instead, also, of a bare region around, in which no foe might lurk, gardens were established, and a long avenue of trees led to the front of the modernized mansion. In some instances, the pepper-box turrets at the upper corners of the building remained. Of the class of structures that sprung up in this period of transition, which we may refer in England to the fifteenth and sixteenth, and in Scotland to the seventeenth centuries, there are several highly interesting remains. These edifices of the nobility and gentry were no longer called castles; they took the name of halls, and as such had attained so great a pitch of magnificence in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, as to have subsequently given a name to a new style-the Tudor or Elizabethan. Latterly, and with no very distinct reference to any particular period, this remarkable

fashion of building has been pretty generally called the ola English style of architecture. One of the best existing specimens of the Tudor era of architecture is Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, the property of the Duke of Rutland.

MODERN BRITISH ARCHITECTURE. During the sixteenth century, an extraordinary effort was made in Italy to restore the purity of Grecian architecture; and in this attempt Palladio was followed by the not less eminent Michael Angelo Buonarotti, who, at an advanced age, in 1546, undertook the continuation of the building of St. Peter's at Rome, a work on which the greatest splendors of the Italian style are lavished. Into England, this revived taste for the Grecian was introduced at the beginning of the seventeenth century by Inigo Jones, to whose contemptuous observations on the German or pointed style the term Gothic has been traced; and after his decease, the Grecian, or more properly the Italianized Grecian, was perpetuated on a scale still more extensive by Sir Christopher Wren. The edifices erected by this great master are characterized by the finest taste, and his spires in particular are models of elegance. The greatest work of Wren was St. Paul's Cathedral in London, in which the Italian is seen in all its glory.

The eighteenth century was an era of decline in architectural taste. Every other style merged in that of a spiritless and often mean Græco-Italian, out of which the architects of the nineteenth century have apparently had a difficulty to emerge. Latterly, there has been a revival in England of a purer kind of Grecian, and also, as we have already said, of old English, and the Gothic or pointed style, and in most instances with good effect. It is only to be lamented that, by the manner in which state patronage is distributed in this branch of the fine arts, some of the largest and most expensive structures Buckingham Palace and the National Gallery, for example-have been erected on the poorest conceptions of the Grecian style, and with a general effect far from pleasing. In Paris, there now exist some modern structures after correct Grecian models, which cannot be too highly praised; we would, in particular, instance the building called the Madeleine, the Bourse, and the interior of the church of St. Genevieve, which are exceedingly worthy of being visited by young and aspiring architects from Britain. Of the superb buildings springing up on all sides of this vast continent, it is unnecessary to speak. While those already in existence, notably in Washington, are admirable copies of the great Greek and Roman periods, the so-called Queen Anne is now the especial craze.

ALPHABET AND PRONUNCIATION.

S many languages as a man knows, so many times is he a man. This system of self-teaching has been devised for the purpose of inducting the beginner methodically. He has but to apply himself, and the language will come to him by delightfully imperceptible degrees. Let him try it at all events!

The French Alphabet consists of twenty-five letters, as follows:

ACCENTS.

The French language has three accents; the acute, thus ¿; the grave, thus è; and the circumflex, . The circumflex accent simply denotes the elision of a silent (generally an “s”) after it, thus tête, originally written teste; dépôt for depost, etc. The acute and grave accents belong exclusively to the letter "e"; an accented e must have the acute accent, if at the end of word, as café; or followed by a pronounced syllable, as métal; a grave accent when followed by a silent syllable, as mère, lièvre.

The grave accent is used on the a of the adverb là (there and its compounds voilà, etc. ; but it is thus employed merely to distinguish it from the article la (the), and not for any effect in pronunciation.

VOWELS.

The pronunciation of the following vowels requires most

care:

ou, is pronounced like oo in the English word look.

o, au, eau, are pronounced like o.

a, is pronounced like a in the word father.

e is pronounced like in the word better. Before mm or nn, it is pronounced like ah; as femme, pronounced fahm; solennel, solahnell, etc.

u is the most difficult letter to pronounce, for there is no corresponding sound in the English language; it sounds like the German, like eeyu, and it ought to be carefully imitated from a French person.

eu, au, are pronounced like u in the English word much.
é, è, ai, ei, are pronounced like a in the English word care.
i, y, are pronounced like e in the English word me.

The nasal sounds, am, an, em, en, un, oin, are equally dif ficult to pronounce, and these ought to be heard and imitated from a Frenchman.

RULE.

As every educated person knows French, those who study without a master, ought, when an opportunity occurs, to ask the pronunciation of a difficult word; by such means, the learner will arrive at the correct pronunciation, which no de scription in words is capable of conveying.