independently of their scientific merit, a very strong claim to the attention of the classical traveller, from the numberless extracts from the ancients, and particularly the poets, introduced with art, and frequently illustrated with elegance.

ARCHITECTURE.

V. As Italy possesses some of the most perfect monuments of antiquity now remaining, Res antiquæ laudis et artis, as well as the most splendid productions of modern genius in Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting, it is absolutely necessary to acquire a general knowledge of the principles of these three great arts.

With regard to Architecture, Dean Aldrich's Elements, translated by Mr. Smyth of New College, is a very clear and concise treatise on the general principles, pro

portions, and terms of this art, and may be recommended as a good work of the kind for the use of beginners. The five orders, according to Palladio's system, are explained in a little treatise, and illustrated in a set of neat engravings by Cypriani*. Scamozzi's Lives of the principal Architects, preceded by a dissertation on the art in general, is an useful and very entertaining work.

But the man who wishes to have accurate ideas and comprehensive notions on this subject, must not content himself with these nor indeed with any modern compositions. He must have recourse to the ancients-inventas qui vitam excoluere per artes -and in their writings and monuments study the best models and the fairest specimens of architectural beauty. Rollin's

* Roma 1801.

short treatise, in his Appendix to his Ancient History, enriched with several citations and classical references, may serve as an introduction. It is not, perhaps, always accurate, because written before an exact survey of several ancient monuments had been made, but it is perspicuous and interesting, and like all the works of that excellent author, admirably calculated to awaken curiosity in the youthful mind. Stuart's Athens, a work of surprising exactness, presents to the eye, in one groupe, a collection of the noblest specimens of Grecian art and of Attic taste now existing*. In these matchless edifices, erected during the most flourishing period of Grecian architecture, the reader will discover

* Mr. Wilkins's magnificent work, entitled, Magna Grecia, is, in execution, accuracy, and interest, equal to any of the kind, and cannot be too strongly recommended.

the genuine proportions of the original Doric, the first and favorite order of the Grecian architects; an order either slightly mentioned or totally omitted by modern artists, though it is supposed, at least as employed in the Parthenon and the temple of Theseus, to unite above all others, ornament with simplicity and beauty with solidity. Vitruvius must be perused or at least consulted, with the assistance of the Italian translation and notes, to remove such difficulties as must invariably occur without some explanation*.

Many works of greater length and more detail might be recommended, but the few alluded to are sufficient, not indeed to perfect an architect, but to form the taste of a young traveller. Besides, when the

* Vitruvio del Galiani, Napoli.

first principles are once known and the original proportions well understood, an attentive observer may improve his taste by comparing the best models of Greek and Roman, of ancient and modern, architecture*

* No art deserves more attention than Architecture, because no art is so often called into action, tends so much to the embellishment or contributes more to the reputation of a country. It ought, therefore, at all events to occupy some portion of time in a liberal education. Had such a method of instruction as that which is here recommended been adopted a century ago, the streets of London, Oxford, and Cambridge, would not present so many shapeless buildings, raised at an enormous expence, as if designed for eternal monuments of the opulence and of the bad taste of the British nation. We should not see such a multitude of absurd edifices under the names of temples, ruins, &c. disgrace the scenery of England so much admired by foreigners. In short, instead of allowing architects to pursue novelty at the expence of taste, and seek for reputation by adaptations and pretended improvements of their own invention, a method which has never yet succeeded, their employers would oblige them to adhere strictly to the ancients, and by adopting their forms and proportions to adorn England with the noblest edifices of Greece and of Italy.

VOL I.

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