blature; the remainder is subdivided into chloride of silver, a salt very sensible to the seven equal parts, one of which is the diameter action of light, which decomposes it, and libeof the column, which is divided into sixty rates the black oxide of silver. When the equal parts, or minutes, which forms the scale paper is perfectly dry it is ready to be used. for measuring the height and proportions of The paper thus prepared should always be used the members (Palladio's Tuscan order). The in the course of the same day, as, notwithfollowing notes will be found useful:-The standing the greatest care to guard it against entablature always contains one-fourth of the the action of light, it will invariably acquire a column; the shaft diminishes from one-third rose tint within twenty-four hours of its preof its height; the pedestal occupies one-fifth paration. The negative paper is then to be of the whole height of the order; the whole placed on the positive paper, the two sides height of the order, including pedestal, is previously acted upon being placed againt one eleven diameters. another. The two papers thus arranged are then to be placed between two glass plates, and exposed to the sun or to diffused light. Ifit be wished to have a very dark picture, the border of the positive paper should have turned green before taking it from the light; but if a less dark picture be required, a bronze colour will be the guide, and, if a very light picture be desired, the paper should be removed from the action of the light as soon as the border of the paper has acquired a blue tinge.

The intercolumniations, in all the orders except the Doric, are the same; viz., the eustyle, which is most common and beautiful, four modules, twenty minutes; the diastyle, six modules; and the aræostyle, seven modules. The Tuscan order admits of no ornaments, nor flutes in the columns; but rustic cinctures are sometimes represented on the shaft.

The uses of the Tuscan order are entirely peculiar to its own character, which is that of strength and solidity, and, therefore, adapts it for the construction of prisons, arsenals, &c., and also the inferior parts of large buildings. Its appearance partakes more of gloom than of grandeur, but it possesses the quality of striking the eye and of arresting attention. (To be continued.)

Photography on Paper.

(Concluded from page 79.) Preparation of the Positive Paper.-The paper should possess the same qualities as that used for the negative, except as regards fineness, for, as the light has not to pass through the paper, it is better to have it of stouter texture, in order to permit the absorption of a larger quantity of the preparation employed.

Take a sheet a little larger than that of the negative paper, and expose one of its sides for a few seconds to the following solution, taking care to mark the side which receives the solution :

:

......

To fix the positive picture, the paper is to be washed in a dark room in cold water during three or four hours, changing the water fre quently; these repeated washings will serve to remove as much as possible of the chloride of silver. After this, immerse the paper in the following solution :

The picture now loses its intensity, and takes a reddish tint; the dipping is to be continued tint, and the black a greater intensity. This until the white parts acquire a slightly yellow hours, according to the greater or less intensity operation may last from half an hour to four of colour which the picture may be desired to exhibit. mersed in water (frequently renewed) for an The picture is now to be kept imsulphite of soda, which, were it permitted to hour, at the least, in order to remove the hyporemain, would attack and destroy the picture; the total amount of this salt is indicated by the washings losing the sweet and nauseous taste which characterises them at first. The picture is then to be dried between folds of blottingpaper, and placed near a gentle fire, which removes all moisture, and assists in the decomposition of the hyposulphite. This salt has a very evident action on the chloride of silver, which it decomposes; but it appears that, if long, the hyposulphite itself undergoes decomthe operation happens to be protracted too position, the sulphur combining with the silver to form a sulphuret of silver which is perfectly insensible to light. If the picture, before being placed to the fire, exhibits a reddish tint, it will quickly lose this, and assume a fine black tint. This fact, pointed out for the first time by M. Guillot Saguez, and which can alone give the certainty that the picture is immutably fixed, cannot be too strongly insisted upon.

Nitrate of silver 5 parts Distilled water.... 30 parts. After this hang the paper up to dry in complete darkness. The dipping in the silver solution may, without inconvenience, be repeated a second time, if it be thought that the paper has not sufficiently imbibed the solution. The dipping in the silver solution gives rise to a change of bases, and to the formation of The photographic pictures produced in strict chloride of silver and nitrate of potass. The accordance to these directions have been found silver solution being concentrated the paper after the lapse of eighteen months perfectly becomes covered on one of its sides with the lunaltered.

the Comparative Value Simplicity in Architecture.

dering the parts of their machinery as few as of possible, that the epic poet, the dramatist, the legendary historian, produce their most gratifying illusions? And if one or two able pens of our own times have (though not uniformly) made simplicity the garb of much beauty, has not the easy assumption of the dress tempted their many imitators to conjure up only impersonations of the ridiculous? Were, indeed, the objects of taste and of the fine arts the same with those of the useful and commercial arts, simplicity would be of paramount impordemands the employment of the least complex apparatus for the attainment of a given result; in the former case, however, the self-imposed toil of the imagination is its own reward; its real weariness arising from that monotony which it is the ultimate tendency of simplicity to produce.

THERE are few operations of the mind more subtle and more fallacious, than is that by which we are led to regard as identical the properties and attributes of objects that are frequently presented to our notice in close association, while they remain essentially distinct from and independent of each other.tance; as, in the latter, the economy of labour We need not wander, in search of illustration to this remark, beyond the field which our present subject opens before us. The common recurrence of such descriptive phrases as 66 simply beautiful," "dignified simplicity," "graceful and chaste simplicity," has unquestionably done much to create in many minds an opinion that simplicity is one with chastity Much of that which has been urged by many and grace, with dignity and beauty. Nor is it in praise of this quality arises, as we hinted at matter of surprise, that, in an age like the the commencement, from their having conpresent, when all are critics, and all seekers founded it with other coëxistent features in after novelty, we should find many who, from nature and in art. That the simple and the an aversion to the extravagances of a depraved grand frequently stand combined is unquestaste, adopt the opposite extreme, and, affect-tionable; yet it is equally true that our iming a false refinement, assert the supreme impressions, in such cases, are produced alone by portance of simplicity, be it only for the para- the grand; and that the grand is the result of dox which the opinion offers to vulgar minds. This opinion has, indeed, received such support, that some writers have given to simplicity the very highest place among the requisites for architectural composition; making it no less essential to the mass, than is harmony to the proportions, or beauty to the details. If, then, such distinction be claimed for this quality in art, it cannot be considered unimportant to examine the validity of such claims, as far as supported by the nature, tendency, and exemplifications of the principle of its observance. This is, indeed, the more necessary, as the principle cannot be said spontaneously to commend itself to the feelings; and therefore, in order to be maintained at all, requires the stronger support of the judgment. It may, perhaps, be fairly questioned at the outset, whether that can be an absolute rule of taste, which approves itself so imperfectly, to our natural perceptions; those perceptions which are not inapt in determining upon the existence of the harmony of fitness, and the beauty of ornament; but, without insisting upon this doubt, we may examine the nature of the quality in question under some of its more ordinary applications, and perceive how far it is usually productive of the results attributed to it.

size, which becomes effective just in proportion as the form of the beholder is, by comparison with itself, reduced to insignificance. From what other cause arises the majesty of the ocean, or of the Alpine heights, which, as illustrations from nature of abstract simplicity, do not excel the pond or the hillock? It is true that what would interfere with the simplicity of these objects would interfere likewise with their grandeur; but for this reason, that, by interrupting the effect of continuity, it would destroy also the impression of size. And if simplicity is not to be confounded with dimension, neither is it to be mistaken for grace. How both may be united in the productions of the chisel is known to every one who has seen the Elgin Marbles; but that grace is no inseparable companion to simplicity is equally obvious to all who have paid any attention to remaining examples of Egyptian sculpture. Were we to pursue the examination of this characteristic in its varied connection with the tastes and refinements of life, it would not be difficult to show to how great an extent it has been mistaken for other and higher qualities. What is more common, for instance, than for the simplicity of a musical air to be considered identical with its sentiment and expression? Yet it cannot be denied Assuming that simplicity in any work of art that Handel himself has left examples of the consists in the fewness of its component parts, manner in which simplicity may be made ridiand assuming also that it is the object of art to culous, had we not the daily testimony of our gratify the imaginative faculties of the mind ears to the faet. Nor, in the labours of learnwithout offending the judgment, we may, oning, are the nature, the beauty, the sublimity, asking whether, such limitation of component of such literary remains of past days as the parts is calculated to satisfy the demands of the English Bible and Prayer Book to be conimagination, safely anticipate an answer in the founded with the circumstance of their negative. If, too, simplicity be all-important simplicity of style; matters quite as distinct to works of taste in one department, what from each other as, in the history of character, shall exclude its authority from those in are the oft-sung joys of rustic life from mere another, the gratification to be attained being clownish ignorance, or the innocence of childderived from the same sources? Is it by ren-hood from the emptiness of the idiot. It may

an abode for the prince, any more than the plainness of the portico where the Stoic anciently discoursed would have been appropriate to the scenes in which modern Rome displays her religious pomps. Thus, again, simplicity is valuable where it promotes a desired expression of strength, as in the architecture of quays, prisons, &c. It is obvious, however, that this reason for its adoption ceases when the character of firmness is less requisite than that of elegance.

be objected, that in thus viewing simplicity as at once non-essential and liable to excess, we are not doing justice to its claims; and that any quality in art or science may be rendered ridiculous by being overstrained in application. This remark, however, is only true as it regards qualities or excellences that are comparative; it is not correct as to those which are absolute. Absolute excellences can never be carried to an extreme. No work of art was ever too grand, too graceful, too harmonious; since grandeur, grace, and harmony are designations On the whole, we are inclined to think that of absolute excellence. While, again, that the praise which has been lavished by many on some works may be too complex and too orna- the principle of simplicity in architecture, has mental is no less certain than that others may had its origin in a twofold error, both negative be too simple or too poor; these terms being and positive. On the one hand, its advocates expressive of the extremes of qualities of com- have not considered the ultimate tendency of parative excellence, those of variety and orna- their position when carried out to its legitimate ment. The very circumstance, therefore, that results; inasmuch as to make the approach to simplicity is a quality comparative and inde- beauty identical with the approximation to finite, manifestly invalidates its claim to the simplicity is a rule which terminates in a replace of an essential and absolute excellence ductio ad absurdum, constituting that most in architecture, and in art generally. If any beautiful which is most blank. On the other pretension whatever could be sustained for its hand again, the positive error consists in their authority as an absolute principle, it must be having mistaken for this principle of simpliby its reduction to its primary elements. Thus city, another, which not unfrequently, indeed, received, and applied to architecture, it would developes itself under the same aspect; the render the sphere the most beautiful of all fundamental and all-important principle of figures; the pyramid of three sides the next unity. We should find no difficulty in proving in merit; the ordinary pyramid, of four sides, that all the excellences which are supposed the next; after which would come the cube of educible from the former belong inseparably to six equal sides, followed, at an uncertain_in- the latter; while the latter disposes of unnumterval, by the cube of the parallelogram. How bered difficulties which beset the former. As little this scale of classification accords with to the principle of unity, it is necessary to prethe principles of taste developed in architec- mise, that it has, architecturally, a twofold ture, ancient or modern, we shall be at no loss reference; regarding, on the one hand, form to determine; at one glance anticipating the and distribution, and, on the other, expression monotonons absurdity that would usurp the of style and purpose: the first embracing the place of art, were we to consult such a scheme symmetrical, the second the picturesque. of approximation in the pursuit of beauty. Whatever praise such examples of Grecian art While, however, we deny to simplicity the as the Parthenon and Theseum may have recharacter of an absolute and essential excel-ceived on the ground of simplicity, it is rather lence in architecture, let us not by any means for the merit of unity of form that we consider be supposed to assert that it is the reverse of them admirable; and, though in our modern an excellence. The truth is, as before stated, cruciform churches in the pointed style, that that simplicity is a quality of comparative and unity of form is not so entirely acknowledged uncertain value; to be regarded in a negative by the eye, the unity of expression and of chalight as standing alone, but assuming a dif-racter is generally more than enough to satisfy ferent degree of importance as associated with the demands of taste. Again, we should varieties of circumstance;-a cypher, which scarcely select King's College Chapel, at Camgives and receives significancy as attached to bridge, as a model of simplicity; while, as an integral terms of admitted import. Thus, example of the supreme beauty of unity, apart when simplicity, as a relative, subserves the from the subject of detail, it stands forth ends of harmony as an absolute principle, its among human works in glorious pre-eminence. efficiency is not be questioned. This it does What the advocates for strict simplicity and by a regard to locality, association, and signi- Greek imitations may think of the merits of ficancy. The round tower that frowns from such piles as Salisbury Cathedral, and the the wild rock, and the long line of massive royal residence at Windsor, to say nothing of columns, occupying, like hoary, earth-born the collegiate edifices, we know not; it is giants of a forgotten age, the Egyptian plain, enough to know that there are those (few are objects imposing in their simplicity; but though they be) who talk of the impressive transfer the tower in imagination to the level and the beautiful, and who can yet deny that lawn, and the Egyptian temple to some gently any but works after classic models deserve the varied and wooded vale, and, interesting as title of architecture. With respect to the lastthey would continue to be for majestic anti- named structures, however, we think it undequity, their simplicity would cease to charm niable that they exhibit little of simplicity, for want of the harmony of situation and ac- with much of unity of expression; and in companiment. Nor, on the ground of signifi- which of these qualities, therefore, the comcancy and appropriation, will the simplicity mand of emotion principally resides, we leave that befits the dwelling of the citizen admit of to the feelings of all, who have any, to deits being magnified into the characteristic of termine.