ÆSTHETICS—ÆSTHETIC.—A modern architectural writer condemns these terms as ‘silly and pedantic’ ones that have ‘lately come into use in the Arts,’ and as ‘useless additions to the nomenclature’ and language of art-criticism. In what respect ‘Æsthetics’ is at all more pedantic than ‘Optics,’ ‘Mathematics,’ ‘Physics,’ and other words of a similar class now familiar to English ears,—although they are all of them essentially Greek,—or more pedantic than a great many architectural terms which are not only Greek but altogether technical, it is not easy to divine; while as to silliness, there seems to be far greater silliness in rejecting, or objecting to, than in adopting terms which are not only highly expressive and convenient, but have found their way into every European language, from that of Russia to that of Spain. The term Æsthetics implies the perception and the study of those qualities which constitute the beautiful and artistic, and form the finer essence of all productions of Fine Art. It carries with it, therefore, a more exact and philosophic meaning than the word Taste. In its adjective form, in which it more frequently occurs, it is particularly useful, as no adequate epithet can be substituted for ‘Æsthetic.’ Thus we speak of the ‘æsthetic sense,’ of ‘æsthetic feeling,’ or ‘study,’ or ‘principles,’ &c.; but we cannot say the ‘tasteful sense,’ or ‘tasteful study.’ As to the species of study just alluded to, no term may be required to designate it, because study of the kind is generally dispensed with for Architecture, an historical and technical knowledge of it being deemed sufficient, without any acquaintance with those comprehensive _æsthetic_ principles of the Art which can guide us where technical rules stop short, and mere rules abandon us to error or to doubt. ANTÆ, Doric, 22. ————, Ionic, 40. ANTEFIXÆ.—Called by some, _Greek Tiles_,—upright ornamental blocks placed at intervals on the cornice along the side of a roof, to conceal or rather terminate the ridges formed by the overlapping of the roof tiles. ARÆOSTYLE.—The widest mode of intercolumniation, 78. ASTRAGAL.—A small convex moulding. The term is applied chiefly to that which is employed to separate the capital from the shaft of a column. ASTYLAR.—From the Greek privative α, and στύλος (stylos), a column: columnless or without columns, a term that expresses the absence of columns or pilasters, where they might otherwise be supposed to occur.