their flocks, and of their fifhes, materials; and in their camels,
horfes, bullocks,-and fifhing boats,. conveyances of
portable huts, -and imitations of their original wig wants-.Jiuts
and tents, which in fhape will differ more or lefs, according
to the different materials they are made of. We find them of
feal and rein-deer fkins. in the north, of hides, felt, or matting
■ in Arabia or Tartary, in the form of cones, with fquare
roofs, and open or fhut at the tides.
T he different habitations w ill retain more or lefs o f their
primitive form in proportion as the different builders remain
independent and unmixed, unconnected, and in the fame fete
and culture; and as habit reconciles the human mind to almoft
every thing, each o f thefe nations or tribes will regard their
primitive habitations with the fame, eye o f partiality as they
are prejudiced in favour o f their refpeCtive countries ; but
when -increafing opulence, ambition, or fuccefsful pppreffiori,.
create artificial wants, and the great look for more convenience
and diftinaion, the.national primitive hut or tent w ill be enlarged,
and embellifhed with what is coftly among them.
When emigrations to foreign countries take place, their prototype
will follow the colonift, and genius will at laft ftretch
and improve it to the lad degree o f perfection o f which it is
capable. What this is, or may be, in architecture, we fee
with admiration exemplified in the old Greek and Roman architecture,
which is the thatched wooden hut, metamorpofed
by genius into a marble edifice, and yet expreffing its original
parts in fuch proportions as are confident with the nature of
ftone and marble. Agreeably to the fame principle, the ffloft
elegant Chinefe buildings are evidently imitations of- the tent
made of bamboo, where ftrength and flender tapering form
admit;of higher proportions and wider intercolummations,
and muft, of courfe, make the Greek marble column and its
narrow intercolümniation appear heavy in comparifon with
the Chinefe. The Chinefe idea of the beauties of their architecture
muft differ from that o f the Greeks, and. the Greek
rule of architectural beauty cannot reafonably be applied to
the principle and materials of Chinefe buildings. How far
all the above prototypes of buildings:are improveable, muft
be left to the future exertions of genius.
T he-oblong and tapering huts of the people o f Eafter Ifland
in the Southern Ocean, are hardly improveable in that country,
which is almoft deftitute of timber. An aCtive people, fuch
as its former inhabitants feem to have been, might, indeed,
imitate them in ftone ; hut would thefe huts fuggeft any idea
but that of ribbed oblong arches, tapering on every fide?
Even the Ample wigwam will, under thé influence of fortunate
circumftances, be adorned by genius with all the pomp
of Flora; the rofe, the vine, the honey-fuckle, and the gourd,
will be entwined; they will be formed into cool and fhady
bowers, like thofe which the glowiog imagination of Milton
affigned to our firft parents in the Garden of Eden.