XV111

buildings of later times: and in China there is scarcely anedifice, the roof of which is not constructed in imitation ofthe moveable tents of their Tartarian forefathers.

Architecture, from the period of its invention, in itsprogress to perfection must have experienced those gradationsto which every art is necessarily subject: for, however thisprogress may have been retarded or facilitated by theintervention of temporary and accidental causes, we shallnot fail to perceive the successive changes from rudeness tosimplicity, from grandeur to magnificence*. As an ornamentalscience, it may naturally be expected to keep pace with theadvances made in those arts to which it is nearly allied, animproved culture of each depending mainly on the samevigour of imagination and general refinement of taste. InGreece , therefore, that powerful cause, or combination ofcauses, which so early produced by the operations of geniussuch a magical effect on the arts of design, exerted a similarin (1 uence on the state of architecture, and if this were the placeto prosecute the inquiry, a most remarkable correspondencemight be traced in the respective conditions of these variousarts throughout the whole history of that wonderful people.

On the rude endeavours of savages in the construction oftheir primaeval huts Vitruvius has sufficiently dwelt. Buton tfie more interesting question of the obligations imposedon the architecture of Greece , by the previously establishedpractice of Egypt , he is silent; and not only neglects toimpure into this point, but appears to avoid all mention ofthe buildings of the latter country. However forcibly thedifferent character assumed by Grecian art may incline us