e Winds, and the monument of Lysicrates at Athens.

[Illustration 1]

Because the Greek architect was at liberty to improve upon the work of
his predecessors if he could, no temple was just like any other,
and they form an ascending scale of excellence, culminating in the
Acropolis group. Every detail was considered not only with relation
to its position and function, but in regard to its intrinsic beauty as
well, so that the merest fragment, detached from the building of which
it formed a part, is found worthy of being treasured in our museums
for its own sake.

Just as every detail of a Greek temple was adjusted to its position
and expressed its office, so the building itself was made to fit
its site and to show forth its purpose, forming with the surrounding
buildings a unit of a larger whole. The Athenian Acropolis is an
illustration of this: it is an irregular fortified hill, bearing
diverse monuments in various styles, at unequal levels and at
different angles with one another, yet the whole arrangement seems as
organic and inevitable as the disposition of the features of a face.
The Acropolis is an example of the ideal architectural republic
wherein each individual contributes to the welfare of all, and at the
same time enjoys the utmost personal liberty (Illustration 1).

Very different is the spirit bodied forth in the architecture of
Imperial Rome. The iron hand of its sovereignty encased within the
silken glove of its luxury finds its prototype in buildings which were
stupendous crude brute masses of brick and concrete, hidden within a
covering of rich marbles and mosaics, wrought in beautiful but often
meaningless forms by clever degenerate Greeks. The genius of Rome
finds its most characteristic expression, not in temples to the high
gods, but rather in those vast and complicated structures--basilicas,
amphitheatres, baths--built for the amusement and purely temporal
needs of the people.

If Egypt typifies the childhood of the race and Greece its beautiful
youth, Republican Rome represents its strong manhood--a soldier filled
with the lust of war and the love of glory--and Imperial Rome its
degeneracy: that soldier become conqueror, decked out in plundered
finery and sunk in sensuality, tolerant of all who minister to his
pleasures but terrible to all who interfere with them.

The fall of Rome marked the end of the ancient Pagan world. Above
its ruin Christian civilization in the course of time arose