Stray Thoughts On The Origin And Progress Of The Fine Arts.

STRAY THOUGHTS ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE FINE ARTS .

Br DlAGOEAS . ISO . VIII .

When the tribes vr . ere divided into two kingdoms , the national temple of the ten tribes of Israel Avas erected on Mount Gerizhn . We read that David , towards the end of his reign , built himself a house ; but even the Ark of the CoA * enant Avas never in a fixed ]) lace until the reign of Solomon . King David expressed his shame that he

himself had a house of cedar , whilst the Ark of the Lord still chvelt in a tent , ancl he accordingly prepared for the erection of a temple ; but it Avas left for his son , "that wise and mighty prince , King Solomon , " to complete his design . The summit of Mount Moriah formed a plane of 36 , 810 square feet . Upon this plane the Temple Avas

built , clh'ided , in the same manner as the tabernacle , into two chief parts , the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place , and hai'ing ou the principal front a splendid portico of 120 cubits high . * There seems to have been some points of resemblance betAveen the temple of the Grand Master Solomon and the temples of Egypt , such as the flat roofs ,

the ornaments of lily or lotus Avork , and the pillars before the porch , corresponding with the obelisks ivhich Avere placed before the Egyptian temples . The temples of the ancients were usually without windows , but that of Jerusalem appears to have had them . There was a wall round the temple , and between this wall and the main

building was a porch divided into three stories . There were tvro courts surrounding "the Temple , " properly so-called , or , in the words of the Bible , the " Holy of Holies ; " the inner court , or that in which the temple stood , called tho " Priests' Court , " or the " Holy Place , " the outer court , being for the general assembly of the people , was called " the Court of the Jews . " The * Priests '

Court was surrounded by apartments , or houses , some of which were for the lodging of the priests , and others for the preservation of the instruments used in sacrificing , & c . In the second Temple , Avhich was in existence when Christ was on earth , " ' the Court of the Jews" was surrounded by another court , called " ' the Court of the Gentiles" ivhich ivas the part of the Temple where

, heathens ivere permitted to worship the Great Architect of the Universe , from whence Christ ejected the buyers and sellers . The exterior walls of Solomon ' s Temple were of stone , ornamented with the " figures of cherubim , palm-trees , and open flowers . " The roof was covered with lates of goldand the interior was decorated and

p , adorned in a " curious and masterly manner . " It was the custom at that period , ivith all civilised people , to decorate their temples ivith gold and precious stones ; but the Hebrews exceeded all other nations in the costly and . magnificent manner in which they so ornamented their temple .

It is somewhat curious , and may be worthy of remark , that the pillars erected by King Solomon , at the entrance to his Temple , correspond very nearly in their dimensions ivith those of the Doric order , first invented by the _ Greeks . The height of each of Solomon ' s pillars was eighteen cubits ; that of the chapiter itself was five cubits

; the circumference was twelve cubits ; hence ive may reckon the diameter to have been four cubits . Had they been a single cubit higher , they ivould have been precisely of the same height with ' the columns of the original Doric order . Passing over the Chinese architecture , the prevailing style of which is familiar to every one ivho has drank from a China tea-cup , or looked at the boxes in a grocer's window , I come to

notice a style which stands unrivalled , aud has so continued during more than 2000 years—I . of course mean the Grecian , Avhich , like the other orders of architecture , some endeavour to connect with an Egyptian origin . Whether the Grecian had such an origin or not , it is A ery certain that the copy has A'astly improved on the oriinal ; so much sothat there is not any feature

reg , maining by which Ave can trace the connection . Tradition and history inform us that Cadmus first induced the Grecians ( 1490 B . C . ) to build iu companies , and surround their houses with defensive Avails ; and thus originated cities . Strabo mentions the ruins of the walls of Tirynthus , near Argos , and supposes them to have

been erected prior to the Trojan War by some emigrants from Syria , in Asia Minor . These walls are composed of rudely-shaped stones , of large size . At this early | ) eriod , when Greece contained only the lawless and rude elements of a nation , and when the people Ai * ere exposed to foreign attacks , it was eminently necessary to construct places of strength and security , both for Avealth and life . One of these strongholds is mentioned by Pausanias as having been built at Orchomenos by

Minyas , King of Bceotia . In treating of Grecian architecture it is most difficult to proceed in chronological order , because it is very uncertain at what period some of the earliest Greek writers flourished ; and the inspection of existing ruins does not always suffice to inform us of the date of their erection . It is pretty certainhoweA erthat there were few temples before the

, , time of Homer , who lived about 900 years B . C . He speaks of the temple of Apollo at Delphi , of Minerva at Athens , and of Neptune at Agoe . He also speaks of sacrifices offered on altars in the open air ; and from his language it seems probable that the fanes or chapels of Minerva and Apollo ivere roofless . The palace of King

Priam he describes as hai * ing been constructed of stone , and consisting of a court surrounded by apartments ; he also mentions columns as hai'ing formed part of the palace of Ulysses . Eoofs were probably laid upon dwellings in Homer ' s time , formed by two or more inclined planes meeting in a ridge or point aboi'e ; because in the Iliad , the position of two men Avhen Ai'restling is compared to tAvo beams in the roof of a house . But little is known of Grecian architecture from the time of

the Trojan War . and the incidental events related by Homer , until the time of the Ionic migration , which includes a period of about 150 years . Vitruvius speaks of a temple , dedicated to Juno , being built at Argos during the reign of Doitrs , son of Helenus , which Ai * as about 1200 years B C .: that this temple Avas erected according to certain rules laid clown hDorus himselfand that

y , this originated the DOBIC order , which was afterwards extensively adopted throughout Greece . The proportions of the order ivere not , however , the subject of any fixed rule , and at that time the Grecian buildings must have been very rude . On the return of the Heraclidce to Peloponnesus , the arts received a sudden check . This

people drove out most of the original inhabitants from a large portion of the country , and maintained a harassing state of warfare with those who remained . During this state of affairs , a body of adventurers , commanded by loy , son of Xanthus , settled in that part of Asia previously inhabited by the Carians . It was theu ,

according to Vitruvius , that the Temple of Apollo Panionios was erected by the settlers . These colonists , being entirely ignorant of all architectural rules , and of the proportions ivhich the columns sliould have in order to support the roof invented a rule to guide not only themselves , but all subsequent Avorkmen , in . order to maintain some sort of harmony aud uniformity in their structures . They made their columns correspond