A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volumes 1 and 2, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present DayFergusson, James
History
A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volumes 1 and 2, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- History
It is even more important that such a science as Ethnology should have
two or more methods of investigation at its command. Certainty can
hardly ever be attained by only one process, unless checked and
elucidated by others, and nothing can therefore be more fortunate than
the possession of so important a sister science as that of Archæology to
aid in the search after scientific truth.
If Ethnology may thus be so largely indebted to Archæology, the converse
is also true; and she may pay back the debt with interest. As Archæology
and Architecture have hitherto been studied, they, but more especially
the latter, have been little more than a dry record of facts and
measurements, interesting to the antiquary, to the professional
architect, or to the tourist, who finds it necessary to get up a certain
amount of knowledge on the subject; but the utmost that has hitherto
been sought to be attained is a certain knowledge of the forms of the
art, while the study of it, as that of one of the most important and
most instructive of the sciences connected with the history of man, has
been as a rule neglected.
Without this the study of Architecture is a mere record of bricks and
stones, and of the modes in which they were heaped together for man’s
use. Considered in the light of an historical record, it acquires not
only the dignity of a science, but especial interest as being one of
those sciences which are most closely connected with man’s interests and
feelings, and the one which more distinctly expresses and more clearly
records what man did and felt in previous ages, than any other study we
are acquainted with.
From this point of view, not only every tomb and every temple, but even
the rude monoliths and mounds of savages, acquire a dignity and interest
to which they have otherwise no title; and man’s works become not only
man’s most imperishable record, but one of the best means we possess of
studying his history, or of understanding his nature or his aspirations.
Rightly understood, Archæology is as useful as any other branch of
science or of art, in enabling us to catch such glimpses as are
vouchsafed to man of the great laws that govern all things; and the
knowledge that this class of man’s works is guided and governed by those
very laws, and not by the chance efforts of unmeaning minds, elevates
the study of it to as high a position as that of any other branch of
human knowledge.
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.
PART I.—ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE.
INTRODUCTORY.
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