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Timber exposed would require care, whilst that which formed the rafters, and wasprotected by the roof or covering, might be allowed to retain its original rotundity,as the exterior could not be affected by the weather. In these few examples we fancywe can trace the germ of all that was afterwards rendered beautiful by art, and in themthe rudiments of that fine fancy which guided the Greeks to the excellence we admire inall their designs.

It was Cadmus according to Hero-dotus , who intro-duced into Greece an entire changein architecture; thePhoenicians that ac-companied him hadamong them a bodyof Gephyrians, whowherever they wentcarried a knowledgeof the sciences andletters; the poetLucan tells us thePhoenicians werefirst acquainted withthe mystery of let-ters, and could writedown or figure thethoughts of themind; from themthe Egyptians ac-quired their know-ledge. To theseGephyrians, whocame from Eretria ,a city of Euboea, hasbeen attributed allthe changes whicharchitecture under-went in Greece —that they com-menced buildings ofstone in imitation ofthe wood huts for-merly used. Cad-mus , who lived about1500 years beforeChrist, introducedthe Egyptian andPhoenician forms ofworship to theGreeks; and the

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Fig. 96.

by the people of that nation.It has been assumed that the

system of working and building in stone, as practisedmay be attributed to the Gephyrians at the same epoch,various elements of Greek architecture were drawn from the buildings constructed by theinhabitants before the arrival of these scientific colonists, who were struck with the featurespresented by the original hut, and engrafted in their designs all that was so pleasing andagreeable to the eye. Our great author, Vitruvius, tells us distinctly, that the Doric orderhad its origin from wooden buildings; and if so, to timber constructions we must refer forthe invention and forms of all we find executed in stone; and the mason called upon to shapethe rock or give its face an architectural arrangement may have had a wooden model forhis imitation, which may also account for the resemblance to timber framing in the ex-ample before us. The principles of construction ought, however, always to be in ac-cordance with the material, the property of stone differing from that of wood ; the latter maybe applied to tie and hold a building together, by the toughness and strength of its longitu-dinal fibres, whilst stone, however strong or tough, so used, would readily be torn asunder.

Among the ornamental works of the Greeks we have frequently animals, plants, andflowers imitated in marble, but always with so much delicacy that the. material loses itscharacter, and seems to become identified with its subject.

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