Architecture And Archæology.

they at once display their concordance with tho most perfect exercise of the powers of locomotion , sensation , volition , and the numerous faculties and functions of animal life . In thc nobler animals the mental powers are , moreover , sufficiently developed to allow of their adding to the charms of form and colour , the subtile one arising from expression ; but it is to be observed that in animal life , in proportion as

the poiver of displaying externally the workings of the informing spirit increase , so does the amount of beauty derivable from colour decrease , until at length in thc human being both form aucl colour become subordinate as causes of beauty to the expression of the intellectual faculties . The same gradation in the relative degrees of beauty prevails in the arts , and they are able to satisfy our minds the most

completely when they suggest the notion that by them are expressed the relations between the external forms of the objects represented , and our ideal conceptions of what it should be . Architecture deals almost exclusively with form , audits beauty partakes greatly of the charm above stated to belong to inorganic nature . Painting has a more pleasing hold on our affectionsbecause it represents lifemotion

, , , form and colour , nay even transient expression ; and thus may be considered to have a degree of beauty analogous to that ivhich prevails in animal life of the highest class . Sculpture ( to my mind at least ) attains tho limits of intellectual beaut )' , so far as the creative power of man , can lie said to do so , simply because ifc expresses the relation between thc form and the ideal , without thc aid of auy

adveiitifcious ornament , of colour or of movement ; ifc is , however , incomplete in this respect , viz ., that it does not allow the display of passing emotion , and in contemplating a fine statue AA-C often "start , for life is wanting there . " I do not purpose , at present , to enter upon tho consideration of what constitutes the beauty of poetry , or of music , bocause both of those sources of intellectual enjoyment appeal to other senses than the sight , and strictly speaking , it is only by extension that thc word beauty can be applied to these moral perceptions . Our immediate inquiry is

connected solely with visible objects , and it would lead us too far were we to dwell on the investigation of the pleasures to be derived from other senses than the sight , or from pure imagination . Now , it seems to me that if this theory of what constitutes the beauty of visible objects be correct , an architectural work can only be considered to possess that quality

ivhen ifc expresses , or , afc least , excites in the mind of the spectator , the notion of thc ideal perfection it is intended to typify . In other words , consistency is one of the great elements of architectural beauty , and no building can be considered entitled to that merit unless ifc expresses unmistakably thc purposes for which ifc was erected . Truth is another element of fche merit of a design , or , perhaps , it

may ho more correct to consider ifc but a modification of consistency . Picfcurcsquencss of outline , play of fancy in decoration , variety of colour , are merely supplemental sources of pleasurable sensations which will add greatly to the charm of a building ; they will not , however , redeem , even though they may partially hide , thc incomplete expression ofthe relation between thc external form and the

ideal perfection , ofthe design , should such really exist . It thence follows that tire beauty of one class of building must differ from that of another , and that the application of the principles of taste requires to bo modified according to circumstances , and even according to times anel modes of faith or of national existence . A Grecian temple , for instance , such a , one ns the Temple of Zeus , at Eleusis , will always bo

beautiful , insomuch as it represents the ideal perfection of a building destined for thc performance of the reli gious rites of a highly civilised race , who had finally resumed their belief in an immoral anfchi-opomorphisni , ' or had , in other words , " made their- gods in their own image . ' - ' But such a temple ivould not be consistent with our ffiith ; anil the very nature of its beauty , a finished and strictly limited beauty , would suffice to render it discordant in our eyes , because it excludes all expression of the Ion " -inn * 1 Ve feel for communion with infinity . This observation would

not apply with the same force to the interior of tho Pantheon of Homo , it were applied to one of the modes of Protestant I worship , because its simple grandeur and unity of effect do '

excite thc notion of infinity , - bufc the introduction of thc side altars in such a building renders ifc inconsistent ivifch thc uses to which it is devoted , and gives rise to a feeling of incongruity , just in tho same way that the small chapels beyond the aisles of our Medieval cathedrals render thorn inappropriate for the Protestant services . Again , the magnificent town-halls of the ancient Duchy of Burgund

y , and of the Gallic and Lombard provinces of Italy , were perfectly in accordance with the political organisation of the communes of those countries , and of the times when the buildings were erected , for every citizen in those days seems to have been forced to interest himself in the affairs

of his own town , and to have assisted , often in arms , at the tumultuous general meetings in which public affairs were settled . The reproduction of such buildings in England , at the present day , ivhen thc business formerly conductedhow , I do nob stop to inquire—by the general body of fche citizens , is handed over to a few elected representatives , ivould bo an anachronism , and great modifications in the

treatment of Medieval forms of art would be required before it could be adapted to thc usages of our times , or before it could express by fche external form ofthe building , the ideal Ave should be likely to form of a modern municipal structure . Many other illustrations might be given of the connection of ideas we unconsciously make between thepurposes and tho beauty of architectural productions ; bufc

the feelings of critics in general are so unanimous on the subject of the necessity of such a connection , that it may be safely taken as an admitted law . All theparts of a building maybe pleasant iu themselves ; they may possess a very great degree ofthe beauty of inorganic nature ; they may bo regular , perfect , symmetrica ] , or oven picturesquely irregular ; they may possess the charm of colour and tone ;

yet if they do not combine to form a whole ivhich should be able to convoy the notion of a perfect embodiment of ourideal of the purpose they are designed to fulfil , thoy cannot produce in . ns the sensation of beauty . Tho eye may be pleased for a time ; the mind cannot be satisfied by airy such incomplete expression of its own requirements . In saying that "the application of the princiles of taste

p requires to be modified according to circumstances , " I would beg distinctly to observe that I by no means desire to see fashion introduced as a rule into the world of art . We already seem to suffer much from this mischievous influence , and the history of architecture in Western Europe , during

thc last sixty j'oars , may especially bo referred to as an illustration of tho fact . In England alone we have seen , within that short period , the style ofthe Adamses give way before thc pale insipid imitations of classical Greek forms ; the latter was superseded by an unreasoning imitation of tho modern Italian architecture in ivhich the " characteristic distinctions of the Florentine , Eoman , Venetian , and

latei-Eoman schools were all jumbled together in strange confusion ; and now we seem bent on the reproduction of thc style of tho Middle Ages , as it exhibited itself in all Christian lands , without any reference to thc conditions of our climate , or to thc habits and requirements of the age we live in . 1 believe , for my OAA * II part , thafc all the styles that have thus flitted before uscontain tho elements of beauty if used in

, their proper places , and for the buildings whose ideal corresponds the most directly ivith their respective tendencies . The style of the Adamses , as we see it exhibited in Fifczroy-squarc on the southern and western sides , was , perhaps , the feeblest and thc most deficient of any in the qualities of high art : but it has a certain amount of elegance , anditis wcll-fittcdfordomesticpurposes . The puro Grecian

style of the Post Office and of the Ionic Chapel on Clapham Rise , though " cold as a moonbeam , " has a stately dignity which adapts itself well to tho requirements of a large public administration or to a form of worship in which little room is left for the expression of individual liberty . The Italian architecture , of tho early Renaissance iu particular , seems to be especially appropriate for the palatial residences

of our aristocracy , for our clubs , and for our modern municipal buildings ; whilst , in their turn , tho spirit and tendencies of Medieval . architecture arc , unquestionably , most in accordance with our ideal of buildings devoted to the service of one " who must bo worshipped hi spirit and in truth , '" and " whom eye has not seen , nor has i " entered in the heart