THE
Repository
OF
ARTS, LITERATURE, COMMERCE,
Manufactures, Fashions, and Politics,
For MARCH, 1809.
The Third Number.
The suffrage of the wise,
The praise that’s worth ambition, is attain’d
By sense alone, and dignity of mind.
HISTORY OF THE USEFUL AND POLITE ARTS.
(Continued from page 72.)
Proceeding with our general view of the history of the fine arts, we shall commence with that which has undoubtedly to boast of the highest antiquity.
Architecture, considered as a fine art, was, among various powerful nations of the ancient world, as also at the foundation of the Peruvian empire, the medium which wise legislators employed to form several tribes into a well-regulated state, to give this associated nation a visible point of union, and to secure to religion and the laws permanent respect and obedience.
In the republics of Greece, where the legislature was more particularly desirous to civilize the citizens, and to inspire them with elevated sentiments, architecture was made the means of diffusing respect for the customs and regulations of the state, love of glory, enthusiasm for patriotic virtue, and a relish for the purer pleasures of existence.
Among all the nations of the earth
which have attained a certain
degree of civilization and greatness,
the cultivation of architecture was
indispensably necessary: it was the
medium by which the state
distinguished, in a manner worthy of
itself, the public buildings, and the
objects and purposes for which they
were designed. The works of
architecture are, therefore, monuments,
in which every nation and every
No. III. Vol. I. S
