prized for burial of the illustrious dead. In that of his grandson, Jacob, the pillar, which seems to have been first imagined for giving permanence to memory of a contract, was adopted for marking the place where the relics of a deceased person were deposited. The earliest instance we read of was the pillar erected by Jacob, in honor of his departed wife Rachel.

But, while the architecture of the wandering. progeny of Abraham was limited to altars and monumental pillars, the art had been making greater advances among the settled people of Egypt. What edifices were in that early age there erected, or in what style, we know not; but the employment of many thousands in making and burning bricks, indicates that building to a great extent was going forward.

In Syria, however (allow me, for convenience, to follow those who comprehend under that name all. the countries between the Mediterranean and the great desert) architecture had been making considerable advances, while the Israelites were living in Egypt. Palestine, when they conquered it, abounded with towns, some of them walled. But, after the tower of Babel, we find no notice of any particular edifice, in any part of the world, whence the manner of building can be inferred, during the lapse, according to the generally received chronology, of more than ten centuries.

Then the temple of Dagon, the imaginary god of the Philistines, occurs. This must have been a structure of great size; but the circumstances related of the death of Sampson, show that the principal material must have been wood; and this indication we find strengthened by what will come hereafter under notice. Less than a century and half then brings us to a period that, for so early an age, may be called luminous. Two buildings remain described, in considerable detail, which had great fame in their own and in all following ages, the temple of Jerusalem and the palace of Lebanon, built by Solomon, king of Judæa.

But before this time, as the very early historian from whom we have the account of these edifices shows, the circumstances of Syria had urged the people to cultivate the art of masonry. The country was divided among many communities, often in arms against each other; whence arose value for that art which could erect strong walls around towns, with towers and battlements, and whatever might be advantageous for defence. So far evidently the art of the age had been much employed, before Solomon's reign. At the same time the extensive forests of Lebanon, on the northern boundary of Judæa, furnished an abundance of timber, of two of the most valuable kinds for the carpenter's

purposes, the fir, and the cedar. Domestic convenience, for which readiness of construction is often important, and public convenience, which requires accommodation for assembled multitudes, would urge to the use of these, and promote the cultivation of the joiners art.

Solomon appears to have proposed to raise the most magnificent temple, and the most splendid palace, that had yet been seen; unless greater power and wealth may have produced in Egypt, or in Babylonia, and possibly in regions eastward of Babylonia, magnificence which he could not rival. But Solomon had married the king of Egypt's daughter. The art, the science, and the taste of that country therefore would be open to him.

The circumstances of Egypt, natural and political, were peculiar; and the peculiarities of both could not fail to affect the Architecture. The whole country being united under one government, and singularly protected by nature against the approach of hostile neighbours, military architecture would not be cultivated there as in Syria. Being nearly destitute of wood, the various stones, with which it abounded, would be the materials for its edifices, where any splendor was desired; and the institutions and the superstition of the Egyptians led them to desire magnificence in Civil, but more especially in Sacred Architecture. Accordingly the art of working stone was carried to great

perfection among them; at how early a period we know not, but certainly very early: and through the lasting quality of their stones, and the freedom of their climate from the destructive effects of frost, large relics of their buildings, to this day, show their style and manner, of an antiquity not to be exactly fixed, but certainly beyond what can be ascertained of any other country.

But

Thus, in Solomon's age, Egypt had the ablest stoneworkers probably then in the world. the historian specially assures us that Phenicia had the most skilful Hewers of Wood, as our translation renders it; for which, as the narrative seems enough to show, might not improperly be put, carpenters and joiners and carvers. A supply of these was obtained from the friendship of the king of Tyre, who was in alliance with the king of Judæa. Whether then merely for speed and cheapness, or whether for the superiority in taste and execution of the Phenician designers and workmen, not only much of the solid, but all the ornamental parts, of both the temple and the palace, which were not of metal, appear to have been of wood: not only floors and roofs were of timber, but walls were wainscoted, even columns were wooden, and among much interior decoration, in carving of the same material, there was what it should seem may not improperly be called statuary of wood. If the account at large, in the book of

Kings (though probably the extracts and ingenious comment in Wilkins's Magna Græcia may have led you to it) should not be in your recollection, I think in turning to it at your leisure you will not fail of amusement.

LETTER IV.

Migration of Arts from the East into Greece.-Architecture of Homer's Age.-Origin of the Grecian Temple.-Circular Building-Stonehenge.-Early use of Bricks.-Rectilinear Building.-Importance of the Altar.-Completion of the Grecian Temple. ·

THAT the arts migrated to Greece from the East, and especially from Phenicia, is shown so satis factorily by Homer, that we hardly want the confirmation furnished by the concurring testimonies of later writers. In Homer's time the Greeks seem to have had neither temples, nor any of those other public buildings, the gymnasium, the stoa, or the theater, which afterward, among the republics, to the great promotion of architecture, were esteemed necessary in even the smallest city. So late as his age, the patriarchal form of government so prevailed, that the palaces of princes were buildings for every ordinary public purpose, and they seem to have been the only buildings for public purposes. The royal palace of Troy