as tribes who had no intercourse with surrounding nations would be forced to invent and develope for themselves, there is no doubt that these two modes have really been invented over and over again by different races in various parts of the globe, and that no nation can call either of them exclusively its own. Most probably the entablature was suggested earliest; for what could be more natural or more simple and easy, for a man wanting to cross or cover an intervening space, than to throw a log across it to rest on either side?

To this trabeated principle of the entablature, which is the simplest form of mechanical construction and most completely developed in the Greek, belong all the most ancient styles of architecture, Cyclopean, Pelasgian, Assyrian, Indian, and Egyptian. The system of the entablature is exhibited. in the earliest cromlechs of the Cyclopean ages, some of which in their present state consist of two upright stones supporting a third stone of vast length laid on their tops, as at Stonehenge (fig. 1) and Avebury, and in the so-called gates of Mykenai (Mycena) (fig. 2).

In the earliest examples stones were used as they were formed by nature, the squarer forms being selected, and the interstices were filled up with smaller pieces; afterwards, as progress was made in

mechanical skill and the use of tools, they were worked to regular shapes, but it was long before cement of any kind was used.

This system of the entablature continued in universal use, with the exception of one ancient people,

FIG. 2. GATEWAY OF THE LIONS AT MYCENE.

almost until the days of Roman supremacy. It may be seen in the remains of the great Egyptian

temples of Karnac and Luxor still in existence at Thebes; in the remains of the city of Nineveh, the capital of the ancient Assyrian empire, recently brought to light; and in the great buildings or excavated temples of ancient India. Chief among these may be mentioned, as the most ancient examples of Hindu architecture, the palace or temple of Ellora at Indra, Elephanta near Bombay, the excavated caves at Kenneri at Salsette, the temple of Juggernaut, stated by the Brahmins to have been constructed 4,800 years ago, and the temple of Benares on the banks of the Ganges, which is built in the form of a cross having four arms of equal length, and surmounted in the centre by a cupola.

In Greek architecture the system of the entablature is completely developed.

The mechanical construction, which is that of the rudest of the most ancient cromlechs (fig. 3), is therein enriched by a suitable and perfect system of ornament full of refinement, dignity, and beauty, and the three Greek orders exhibit a perfection of form never surpassed by human skill.

Under the constructive principle of the ARCH a totally different system is adopted, the connexion between the two upright bodies or piers being effected by a series of shaped pieces supporting each other by their own cohesion.

There is no doubt that the Arch might in course of time be invented by all who lacked material of sufficient dimensions to reach over an intervening space. To be convinced of this we have only to take into consideration the existence of some knowledge of this principle in all parts of the world as exhibited in some Pelasgian erections, particularly in the walls of Tiryns (fig. 4) mentioned by

Homer and Pausanias, in the instances of Egyptian work mentioned by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, in the mysterious temples discovered in the interior of Central America, as well as in the dome-like snowhouses of the Esquimaux.

The remains of the Central American temples and cities of Copan, Quirigua, Gueguetinango, Uxmal, and Palenque, described by Mr. Stephens,

were for centuries buried in the depths of the American forests, and as completely hidden there as if covered by the lava of Vesuvius or the sands of the Assyrian deserts. Of the period of their erection, or of the people by whom they were inhabited, or the calamity that caused their desertion, we know

nothing, and assuredly they were far beyond the reach of any European influence at the time when those gigantic masses of stone were wrought and erected. But we yet find there the principle of the entablature, corresponding with its use by the Cyclopean and Egyptian builders, and in later