Читать книгу The Englishman's House: A Practical Guide for Selecting and Building a House онлайн

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It would be interesting as an object of careful inquiry, if there existed sufficient data for the purpose, to trace each of the many steps that have occurred between the birth of architecture and its present condition. The early history of mankind had as its locality climates which favoured the construction and use of the crudest contrivances, intended only to meet the few wants of shelter and occasional domestic privacy. The first condition of man’s existence, either in this primitive or modern state, is that of roving or wandering tribes. Instances of this are found in the early inhabitants of Asia Minor, and adjacent countries, and at the present day the same habit is maintained in Central Asia, Arabia, and many parts of America. As soon as the sustenance afforded for their cattle is consumed in one district a migration is made to another. Gradually, however, centres of trade sprung up where commodities could be bartered for live stock. Men thus became massed together in villages and towns. Quitting a semi-savage condition, they built permanent residences in place of the tent. At first these, like the log-hut of the modern Canadian, were only sufficient for the most common necessities of life. In course of time, however, the spirit of emulation, the growth of riches, and the germination of man’s natural taste for the beautiful, led to artificial wants, which were soon converted into necessities of life. This called out the study of art on the part of the few for the benefit of the many. Systems of art in all its branches gradually developed themselves. By the study of the beauties of nature such systems gradually progressed in purity of style, and produced designs that eventually were appreciated by the common people, in a greater or less degree, according to the capabilities of each individual. Architecture and the other fine arts thus, by slow but sure degrees, began to gain a hold on popular taste, and step by step they arrived at the state of perfection of which we now boast.