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of Archite&ure.

among a polite and free people that could not be satisfied but with excellence; while amongother nations where such shews, games, and exercises were never introduced, architectuiealways appeared in its infant state, and was only used with many aukward contrivances, for thestructure of private habitations, and of very few public edifices, just as the mere exigency ofthings required.

Having already mentioned the Goths, it may not appear altogether improper to fay somethingof their architecture. The name of Gothic was given to all such buildings as were not designedaccording to the rules of Grecian or Roman architecture. There are two forts of Gothic, the an-tient and the modern, (but improperly so called;) in England and the northern parts of Europe, theantient Gothic includes the Saxon and Danish, in which indeed we may observe some traces ofelegance and strength. It appears that their artists were not entirely ignorant of proportions,though they did not confine themselves strictly to such as were beautiful; solely attentive to rendertheir works solid and durable, they were more studious to produce the marvellous by the enor-mous size of their fabrics, than by any regularity of structure or propriety of ornaments. These arcthe marks that characterise the Goths, a rough unpolished people, of huge stature and of dreadfullooks, that ifilling forth from the northern parts of our hemisphere, where necessity taught them toguard against the violence of storms and the fury of torrents, increased by the inundations ofmelted snow, carried into milder climates their monstrous taste of heavy architecture, and onlyin a small degree corrected their encumbered notions by the sight of Roman edifices; but themodels they had to contemplate were not without their faults, for from the reign of AlexanderSeverus, architecture had greatly degenerated. Thus a want of natural genius, a want of models, andevery thing contributed to hinder the Goths from acquiring any good mode of building. This isthe summary of the antient or heavy Gothic architecture; some of the cathedrals and other publicedifices, not only in this country, but in many others of the continent, still remain as models ofthis fort. Modern Gothic, as it is called, is deduced from a different quarter; it is distinguish-ed by the lightness of its works, by the excessive boldness of its elevations and of its sections, bythe delicacy, profusion and extravagant fancy of its ornaments: the pillars of this kind are as slen-der as those of the antient Gothic are massive. Such productions, so airy, cannot admit the heavyGoths for their authors; how can be attributed to them a style of architecture which was only in-troduced in the X century of our æra, several years after the destruction of all those kingdomswhich the Goths had raised upon the ruins of the Roman Empire, and at a time when the vervname of Goth, was entirely forgotten? From all the marks of this new architecture, it can onlybe attributed to the Moors, or what is the fame thing, to the Arabians or Saracens, who have ex-pressed in their architecture the fame taste as in their poesy, both the one and the other falsely de-licate, crowded with superfluous ornaments, and often very unnatural. The imagination is highlyworked up in both, but it is an extravagant imagination, and this has rendered the edifices of theArabians (we may include the other orientals) as extraordinary as their thoughts : if any onedoubts of this assertion, let us appeal to those who have seen the Mofcheas and tire palaces of Fez,or some of the cathedrals in Spain, built by the Moors; one model of this fort is the church at Bur-gos; and even in this island, there are not wanting several examples of the fame. Such build-ings have been vulgarly called modern Gothic, but their true appellation is Arabefc, Saracenic, orMorefc.

This manner was introduced into Europe through Spain. Learning flourished among the Ara-bians all the time that their dominion was in full power; they studied philosophy, mathematics,physic, and poetry ; the love of learning was at once excited in all places that were not at toogmat a distance from Spain; these authors were read, and such of the Greek authors as they hadtianflated into Arabic were from thence turned into Latin. The physic and philosophy of theArabians spread themselves in Europe, and with these their architecture; many churches were builtafter the Saracenic mpde, and others with a mixture of heavy and light proportions; the alterationthat the difference of climate might require, was little if at all considered. In the most southernparts of Europe and in Africa, the windows (before the use of glass) made with narrow apertures,

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