ELEMENTARY LECTURES ON CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE BY RICHARD POPPLEWELL PULLAN, F.R.I.B.A. Author of Various Works on the Fine Arts. London: EDWARD STANFORD, 55, CHARING CROSS. 1879. INTRODUCTION. THE study of architecture in the present day engrosses a considerable share of the attention of the public, but not more than it can justly claim, for a knowledge of architectural style is of infinite service to the student of history by affording him data from which he can trace the habits and customs of former times. The buildings of a country are the illustrations to the pages of the history of that country-the sole tangible remains -the facts of the past. Chronicles may perish, traditions may be forgotten, but so long as the monuments of a people remain, their forms of religion and modes of government and the degree of science possessed by that people may be inferred from them. Thus, so long as the mighty pyramids of Egypt and her vast temples, with their gloomy recesses remain, it will be said there dwelt a nation whose religion was mysterious, whose government was despotic, and whose science was limited; or wherefore do we find these dim adyta guarded by gigantic divinities? How could these piles have been raised, except by compulsory labour enforced by despots? Why do we find evidences of this great waste of materials and labour in raising these ponderous architraves ? |