Ki21.] Real Origin of Pointed Architecture. mer did not know how to hit the mark he aimed at once; and an annotator says, that the Little Bear was not discovered in those days. In the Odyssey, b. 2. 1. 274, there is a strange mistake in the punctuation in the Greek editions, and a corresponding mistake in the translations. Minerva is made to say to Telemachus; "If you have your father's sense, you will do well; but if you are not the son of Ulysses and Penelope, I have no hopes of you; for few sons are like their fathers. You, however, have your father's sense, and therefore I have some hopes of you." Is this intelligible? There should be a comma after E ou the three first words of the line mentioned, and the meaning is then plain and good: "If you have your father's sense you will do well; if not, although you are the son of Ulysses and Penelope, I have no hopes of you: for few sons are like their fathers. You, however, have your father's sense, and therefore I have some hopes of you." I should be happy to communicate these notes on Homer to his readers; and if they are approved of, I may trouble you again. Mr. URBAN, HE attention of your A-s. Feb. 7. 223 ton, to the Forests of Germany; with Sir C. Wren, to the Saracens; or to the inspection of staircases, grottos, or tumuli, with reviewers and other speculators of less note. Neither shall I have occasion to seek with Mr. Lascelles its origin in a period so remote as the Deluge. And I hope that gentleman will not cease to admire this beautiful style, from its commencement being fixed in that unclassical period, styled by modern illuminati "the dark ages," or from the credit of its invention being given to the ill-treated, ingenious, and pious class of men, the Monks. It is now ascertained, that when this Island was under the dominion of the Romans, the Britons excelled in the Architecture of that nation; and at the Saxon invasion, and the subsequent conversion of those people to the Christian faith by the Romish Missionaries, and the consequent introduction of Monasteries, many buildings remained in that style, and served as models for the architects of the churches, which the piety of the new converts soon began to raise in different parts of the country. So early as A. D. 791, Offa, King of Mercia, founded the Abbey of St. Alban. The church still remaining shows a rude, but at the same time a noble specimen of the unrefined genius of the Thas been lately called Readers Saxon architects. lication entitled "The Heraldic Origia of Gothic Architecture, in answer to all foregoing Systems on this subject, by Rowley Lascelles, esq." The promise held out in the titlepage led me to the perusal of the volume itself; but I was unable to discover its fulfilment in any of the 67 pages, or any reason to suspect that the "Heraldic Origin," like the Rod of Moses, would swallow up all its opponents. It is my intention to dedicate the present Letter to an inquiry into the real origin of Pointed (not Gothic) Architecture; and by comparison with Mr. Lascelles' theory, I shall endeavour to show the superiority of the system now almost universally sanctioned and supported by the most able Antiquaries, and at which this publication is therefore chiefly levelled. In doing this, I shall not lead your Readers, with Mr. Murphy, to the Pyramids; with Bishop Warbur See rol. XC. ii, 141, 198, The round arch and cylindrical column, with ornaments peculiar to themselves, prevailed in the works of the Saxons un til the Norman Conquest. These invaders, upon obtaining possession of the English Monasteries, altered and adorned them in a more splendid manner, but did not always rebuild them from the foundations, as is sometimes supposed: they introduced many new and improved mouldings, and other embellishments, and usually ornamented the dados of windows and other spaces with semicircular arches intersecting each other; the Saxons before them adorned such situations with a series of circular arches recessed. The Norman improvement, it is evident, converted the circular into an arcade of Pointed arches, the intersecting semicircles being no more than ornaments upon the wall; and which being at last omitted, or the Pointed arch pierced through to admit light (making an upright narrow window with pointed head, which pre vailed 224 Real Origin of Pointed Architecture. vailed in most early Norman build ings, and was little more than a loophole), formed the first Pointed arches. The discovery, however, did not rest here; in the twelfth Century we frequently find the main arches of buildings pointed, and others intro duced in common with circular, as in the Church of St. Cross at Winchester, 1132; the Temple Church, 1185; St. Bartholomew's Prioy, London, 1123; and St. Mary Overy's Priory, Southwark, about the same period. The great doorways were round-headed and deeply recessed, and adorned with a succession of hollows and rounds resembling arches in perspective. The Saxon zig-zag, or Chevron moulding, gave way to one formed of the cup of a flower, and which prevailed for more than a century, and the capitals of the columns were carved with leaves resembling the Corinthian order, but without its regularity of design, which shows the unsettled state of the art at that period. In its advancement towards perfection, the round arches disappeared, until buildings arose entirely with pointed ones. But the style was still not perfected. The antient Saxon arrangement, which had been preserved by the Normans, prevailed in the cylindrical columns and narrow windows, which, together with the doorways, at first only differed from those of an earlier period by having Pointed arches; and it was not until the reign of Edward III. that the art shone forth in the highest state of perfection. To detail minutely the subsequent changes which the style experienced until its decline in the sixteenth Century, is not at present necessary. The following outlines show the different forms of the arches, and from the periods to which I have fixed the duration of each, it will appear that they never existed together in any building wholly of one age; they are more correct representations than those given by Mr. Lascelles, one of which cannot be found in any antient building: These several arches, each accompanied with its separate detail, made [Marc three grand divisions of the style, as distinct and separate as any of the orders of Grecian or Roman Architecture. The first began in the 12th Century, and continued throughout the thirteenth; the second prevailed when the art was at perfection, in the fourteenth Century; but after the reign of Richard II. the point was gradually depressed until that of Henry VII., when the third form was perfected. In the reign of that Monarch's successor, the style received a death-wound, with the cruel and sacrilegious destruction of the Monks, who had discovered, fostered, and matured this wonderful invention, which, unable to survive their fate, was involved in the general ruins which attended the fall of its beuefactors. From what has been advanced, it will be seen that Pointed Architec ture was not introduced in a perfect state; a single Pointed arch, amidst a mass of circular ones, gave the first idea of the style which long remained equivocal, and it was not until nearly a century after Pointed arches were adopted, that the style became universal, which would not have been the case, had it been imported from any foreign country; and admitting for a moment this to be the fact, we may at least claim the merit of forming the style, as it is evident that only the shape of the arch (if any thing) is borrowed, a circumstance alone sufficient to controvert the system of Mr. Lascelles. As the grand feature of the style is always repeated, as well in the eleva tion itself as every arch, however minute, the appellation of "Pointed Ar chitecture" is the most appropriate that can be given to it, and far bet ter than the odious "Gothic," now almost exploded, which conveys the error that the Goths were the inventors, an honour to which our own country at present has the fairest claim. (To be continued. } E. I. C. PROGRESS OF LITERATURE IN DIF- (Resumed from p. 118.) 1821.] Progress of Literature in different Ages. had certainly fallen very far below the virtue of their ancestors, who may be said, on the whole, to be sunk in comparative effeminacy, were, although they doubtless gave abundant proofs of other capacities, chiefly distinguished for excelling in branches of the fine arts, comprising ingenuity, taste, exquisite invention, and boldness of execution, but, at the same time, of the lowest rank, perhaps, in the human sciences. Thus, it would appear that each nation has given, in its turn, some colour for speculative conclusions of this sort; although all must cordially coincide with the ingenious and classical Warton, that it would be absurd hence to infer that Homer would not have produced the Iliad, Virgil the Eneid, or that Angelo would not have excelled in design under a different form of government. Whatever, then, be the share which intellectual culture,-associated example,-prevailing excess of refine ment, and the salutary influences of wise laws, may have upon the particular form or complexion which distinguishes the mental studies, that complexion, it seems not too much to imagine, is still subservient to some other vivifying power, which secretly works independantly of all their combined operations. The first, doubtless, are all instruments; are often powerful instruments; but from the strangely capricious changes which seem sometimes to mark the locality of genius, its contemporary growth, and its occasional and transient splendour, would appear referable to other causes, either physical or moral, which possibly, however, may not come under the sphere of human comprehension. Still, it may be said, the question which an ingenious philosopher and divine of the Seventeenth Century has propounded for the consideration of the learned, will remain unanswered, by any satisfactory hypothesis. Why," he asks, "should not all ages, and all nations, improve in every thing as well as this or that age, or nation only. Why should the Greeks, the Arabians, the Persians, or the Egyptians of old, so far exceed in capacity those of the same nations now.-Why the Africans and Americans be universally GENT. MAG. March, 1821. 225 so mean in understanding, and barbarous in sentiment, and the Europeans, for the most part, polite and cultivated,-addicted to Arts and Learning." If the reply to these, and other suggestions which will naturally occur, whilst contemplating the changeful course of genius and the arts, as developed in the history of nations, appears obscure, and involved in studies of too profound and intricate a nature to be easily elucidated, it is yet most clear to all, who have bestowed the slightest attention on these matters, that, according to the hypothesis here adopted, and as the same author has in his own language expressed it; "there is in wit and art, as in all other things besides, a kind of circular progress.-They have their birth, their growth, their flourishing, their failing, their fading,-and within a while after, their resurrection and re- flourishing again.-The arts flourished for a long time amongst the Persians, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians.-But afterwards the Grecians got the start of them, and are now become as barbarous themselves, as formerly they esteemed all besides to be.-About the birth of Christ," he continues, "learning began to flourish in Italy, and spread all over Christendom, until the Goths, Hunns, and Vandals, ransacked the libraries, and defaced almost all the monuments of antiquity, so that the lamp of learning seemed to be put out for near the space of a thousand years,-till the first Mansor King of Africa and Spain raised up and spurred forward the Arabian wits by great rewards and encouragements.After Petrarch opened such libraries as were undemolished, he was seconded by Boccace, and John of Ravenna, and afterwards by Aretine, Philolphus, Valla," &c. &c. Stimulated to examine the various operations of secondary causes, and unwilling to rest satisfied with a general admission of facts, until he has endeavoured to fathom their combining operative agents, the metaphysician, however persuaded of its general truth, will yet, perhaps, deem the conclusion of this same author rather the frank sentiment of the pious divine, than those of the philosopher, eager after hypothesis, and unwilling 226 Progress of Literature in different Ages. unwilling to quit a topic of enquiry, But if the extraordinary growth and ripening of talent, at some periods, more than others, and the vicissitudes which have marked the displays of the human intellect, present an enquiry, on the whole, pregnant with difficulty to the lu. cubrator, there are considerations upon what may be termed the physical influences of climate and soil, which operate, exclusively of moral and intellectual causes, the con. templation of which is not uninteresting to the philosopher, and upon which it is hoped the patience and the good taste of the reader will not be offended, as they may possibly, in their detail, combine actual interest, with a superior degree of certainty. Active and enlightened theorists have repeatedly distinguished themselves by speculating upon the effects of climate upon the human frame and constitution of body, to gether with the moral influences of certain modes and habits of life, as relating to that deplorable state in which the Americans in particular, and other tribes, though creatures of our own species, are sunk, when suffering under the deprivation of every moral principle of culture. Hypothesis has lent her aid to up. hold systems concerning people of diverse character, and various degrees of civilization,-systems founded, indeed, sometimes, as might be expected, upon grounds highly visionary and erroneous. Whether, however, the want of those means, which education afford, be, as is generally supposed, the sole cause of the near approach of the savage to the brute, of his incapacity for any [March, mental exercise which requires the active contemplation of his own ideas,-a deep and philosophic enquiry has, perhaps, scarcely yet been ascertained. M. De La Condamine-a philosopher of eminence, and who is, from his long residence amongst them, to be presumed a competent judge with regard to some, at least, of those of the new world,-may, however, be said to be of this opinion, as is sufficiently evident from the following brief, but masterly sketch of their character:- "It appears to me," he remarks, "that the Americans have all one common character, of which, insensibility is the governing princi płe,-whether this is to be honoured by the name of apathy, or disgraced by that of stupidity, I shall leave undecided. It springs, no doubt, from the small number of their ideas, which extend not beyond their wants. Gluttons to excess, where they have the means; temperate to a seeming indifference, when they have not; pusillanimous in the extreme, if not transported by drunkenness; detesting labour; indifferent to every motive of glory, honour, or gratitude; solely possessed by the present object, and ever determined by it; without inquietude for the future, or me mory of the past; giving themselves up to a childish joy, which they express, when unrestrained, by leaping, and immoderate bursts of laughter; without object or design; they pass their lives without thinking, and grow old without rising out of childhood, of which they preserve all the defects to the last. Were these reproaches confined to the Indians of some province of Peru, one might suspect that this degree of brutality springs from the abject dependance under which they are held; but the Indians of the Missions, and the sa vages, who enjoy their liberty, being equally limited in their intellects with the rest, one cannot contemplate, without humiliation, the near approach of man, abandoned to his simple nature, and deprived of edu cation, to the condition of a beast." Degraded far below the state of civilized man, the opinion of M. De La Condamine of these Indians,(which, however, is not always in unison with those of most other travellers, and involves a too general pro 1821.] On Money, as opposed to Commodity. proscription of their moral endowments,) is, or seems to be, that their imbecility, indolence, and rudeness, is the sole consequence of their want of education.-No imaginable reason can be given, why a race of beings, comprehending, if we unite Africa with America, perhaps more than the half of mankind, deprived of the institutions of government, and the civilizing influences of science, arts, and manners, should originally possess weaker intellects than their more fortunate brethren of another latitude, or zone; or why Nature should more parsimoniously endow people who had, for any thing we see, an equal right to these immunities, than any others upon whom the adven. titious gifts of Heaven might, in the changeful course of human affairs, equally be supposed to fall. No reasonable ground exists for assuming that the Britons, the Gauls, or the Germans, have, in the aggregate, better capacities, or a brighter genius in the Eighteenth, than in the Eighth Century; and yet we find them, in the latter of these periods, distinguished by science and literature; whereas, in the former, they were overwhelmed by barbarism and moral darkness, and characterized by ignorance and imbecility. Melksham. (To be continued.) Mr. URBAN, E. P. Feb. 6. IN my Letter on the alleged price Gold and Silver, published in your last volume, p. 317, I trust that I have fully established this fact that the precious metals having been selected and adopted, and being now received, by all commercial people, as the universal equivalent for whatever is offered to be sold, they have acquired the distinction of buyers or price, and it must follow, that as they are the price of all commodities, they cannot themselves be commodity. Hence it has arisen, that when bullion, whether coined or in mass, is placed in direct opposition to commodity, its operations become intricate and difficult to comprehend. I propose, Mr. Urban, to make these two things, so opposed, the subject of my present communication. Commodities are the produce of la 227 bour, and cousist of whatever is vendible. Money is not vendible, and can be obtained only by the sale of commodities, except by those who dig it from the earth, and who supply the rest of mankind, by purchasing from them the commodities they have to sell. When commodities rise in price, then bullion sinks in value, and if they fall in price, then it rises in value. This is a circumstance, that enquirers on this subject should always keep in mind; for otherwise, it is impossible either to make themselves understood, or to understand others. The money, or piece of price, is thus opposed to the thing sold, and is as distinct as the buyer and seller. Money and bullion have now, by the law of nations, the ability to pay all debts per force, whereas commodity can discharge debts only by agreement. All persons may refuse to accept goods in liquidation of a debt, but no one can refuse to receive payment in money. Bullion having become the universal equivalent, is the money of the world:-coins are the money of particular states, and both, as money, command whatever is to be sold in all markets. But commodities must wait to be bought, and their sale depends very much on their quick consumption. Bullion may almost be said to be inconsumable. The metals resist even the opera. tion of fire, and are capable of being rendered so pure (particularly gold) as not afterwards to undergo any diminution of weight; hence it is, that they are known without being seen, and traders, separated by thousands of miles, receive stipulated weights of bullion as the price of all commodities. Other things are always varying in price; bullion, having been adopted as the buyer, or measure of price, cannot itself have a price, it can only vary in its value. No person in Great Britain, except the Government, can coin an ounce of silver into more than 5s. 2d. or an ounce of gold into more than 31. 17s. 10 d. and they can always pay it away in coin to that amount. At this rate bullion is made into coin, and therefore cannot be much under the same value; and when coined caunot, |