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from the study of the remains of Grecian architecture which have come down to us, what may have been the theory of Grecian philosophy upon the subject of architectural theory.

Vitruvius tells us that the qualities the Greeks most regarded were seven in number, consisting of, 1. Solidity. 2. Convenience. 3. Order. 4. Disposition. 5. Proportion, including Eurythmia and Symmetry. 6. Decorum. 7. Economy.

I would especially invite your attention to the succession of these various headings, because I believe them to be coincident with the natural sequence in which the different branches of the study of his art require to be taken up by any architect who would elaborate a design on philosophical principles.

The principal obscurity which occurs in the explanation of the meaning of the limits of these different sections given by Vitruvius occurs in his definition of the fifth of them, viz. Proportion, and it becomes almost impossible to gather from his words the respective functions of Eurythmia and Symmetry.

Under the first head, that of Solidity, may be comprised the architect's study of materials. Whoever is about to build has, before he can exercise his art as a technicality, to see what nature provides for him to build with, and where nature is absolutely deficient in the provision of good building materials, to see how far human ingenuity can supply what nature may be deficient in.

He has therefore to select stable materials and to acquaint himself with their greater or less durability, and with those natural laws of statics which ensure their retention of the form into which he may primitively dispose them.

In all ages the materials employed in architecture have exercised a most potential voice over its form and character. As is well observed by Dr Memes, in his History of Sculpture, Painting and Architecture (Constable and Co., 1829),