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the curiosity of young persons. Flint, or purified stony sand, called silex, is mixed with pure soda, and exposed to a moderate heat, producing what is called the frit; this is then put into moderate sized vessels, and exposed to a violent heat, till melted; and on cooling a little, it becomes a kind of hot paste, which may be worked and moulded to any shape:-the ingenuity and expertness of the workmen, in so moulding and shaping it into various vessels, is highly amusing.

107. Tiles for the roofs of houses are made of clay in the manner of bricks. Slates dug from quarries are also used for the same purpose. In country-places, where the earliest practices are still continued, roofs are thatched with straw; these will keep out the wet and cold, but generate a musty smell.

Paints, consisting of the oxides of metals, and of certain coloured earths, or natural oxides, mixed with oil, at once serves to preserve wood; and to purify and beautify the inside of houses.

VI. Of Architecture.

108. After the art of building had attained what was useful and necessary; luxury would aim at ornament:—an ingenious carpenter would become a carver; and an ingenious stone-mason, a sculp

tor.

The pillars which supported the work, would not be allowed to be quite plain; but would be cut or carved in ornaments, at the head and base;. and other parts of the room, or structure, would berade to correspond. Hence, arose what are . called the five orders of Architecture.

109. The five orders of architecture were successively invented in ancient Greece and Italy; and are called the TUSCAN, the DORIC, the IONIC, the CORINTHIAN, and the COMPOSITE: they are to be found in all the principal buildings of the Christian world.

110. The Saxons, also, had a simple style of architecture; distinguished by semi-circular arches aud massive plain columns: these still are found in many of our oldest buildings.

The Normans, too, invented a beautiful style of architecture, called the Gothic; distinguished by its lightness and profuse ornaments; by its pointed arches; and by its pillars, carved to imitate several conjoined.

The Gothic architecture is found in all our old cathedrals; and is often elegantly adopted in private dwellings.

Obs. 1.-As a more effectual means, than any verbal descriptions, of conveying a knowledge of the several species of architecture, the characters of each are here given; and to fix them in his recollection, the pupil should trace or copy them.

2. The Hindoos, Egyptians, Chinese, and Moors, have likewise their own separate styles of ornamental building; and nothing can be more grand, harmonious, and more picturesque, than each of these, in the splendid specimens, which are to be seen in their several countries. In England, the Pagoda, in Kew Gardens, is a pleasing specimen of Chinese architecture; but we seem, in general, to prefer the five orders; or the Gothic.

1. THE TUSCAN ORDER.

2. THE DORIC ORDER.

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3. THE IONIC ORDER. 4. THE CORINTHIAN ORDER.

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VII. The Art of Clothing.

111. Most animals are provided with a coat of hair or wool for covering; but man seems to have been left naked, and in many respects destitute; apparently, to serve as a stimulus to his industry and invention.

Man seems, as to his own wants and powers, to have been formed, to equalize climates, and conquer the elements. His superb edifices, his control of fire and water, his application of light in the night, and his various clothing, distinguish his superior intellects.

112. In all climates, clothing is not alike necessary; between the tropics it is little required, except for ornament: but in the temperate and

frigid zones, man could scarcely subsist without some covering.

Holy writ tells us, that the first clothing of Adam and Eve were the leaves of fig-trees, sewn, perhaps, together; and even at this day, our manufactures of clothing are derived, chiefly, from the fibres of the vegetable kingdom.

113. The skins of animals were doubtless the first substantial clothing. The shepherd would dress himself in his sheep or goat's skin; and the hunter, as a trophy, in the skin of a wild beast.

The Tartars clothe themselves in horse-hides to this day; the Americans, in the skins of buffaloes; and even in some parts of Europe, a sheep's skin, with the woolly side inward or outward, makes a winter or a summer-garment.

114. Some natives of the South Sea islands clothe themselves in mats made of reeds or vegetable fibres; others render pliable the common bark of trees; but none of these will wash, or are durable.

Civilized man, however, adapts the means of nature to his purposes, by a process of his own; he separates the fibres themselves, then twists them into thread, and by interweaving this thread, he obtains a pliable and durable material.

115. The most useful plant, for this purpose, is flax. It is cultivated like wheat; and as soon as its seeds are ripe, it is pulled up by the hand; the seed-vessels are taken off, and the stems are put into pits of water, till the mucilageous or gummy matter, which holds the fibres of the stalk together, are dissolved.

116. After the stalks have been taken out of

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