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The subject which will engage our attention to-day comprises the history of that art—Architecture—which, while it has administered to some among man's first necessities, has also supplied him with the shrine with which his noblest religious aspirations have been in all ages associated.

It will at once be obvious to you that it can scarcely be considered to have existed so long as the dwellings occupied by man were limited to holes in the earth, caves, or mounds raised around stakes or sticks to give stability to central cavities, so as to form artificial caverns or caves, or even to those rude erections of poles covered with skins, or thatched with reeds, which sheltered the primeval man. It is only when the habitation is reared for something beyond the immediate wants of the individual who erects it that the first idea of giving it embellishment may be said to come into existence.

This fact is interesting as illustrating the unselfish tendency of art generally. He who once properly feels its influence desires almost as much to communicate the enjoyment he himself derives from it to his fellow-men, as he does