PREFACE.
I have written this short history of architecture to meet the requirements of those who wish to become acquainted with the main facts without having to read voluminous works, many of which are addressed, not to the student, but to the connoisseur, who is presumed at the start to have a knowledge of the subject sufficient to enable him to comprehend critical and theoretical essays.
The plan I have adopted has been to trace the origin of each style, its characteristic points and its connection with those which preceded and succeeded it, without introducing technical terms or any but the most important dates.
There is a temptation to enter into the social and political histories of each building race, but brevity forbids this, as well as any of the gushing descriptions usually found in modern handbooks on art.
I imagine that very few people have the time to read lengthy treatises on architecture, but that there are many who would be glad to know the chief historical facts, were these to be presented within a small compass. I hope, therefore, that this volume may be of interest to the general reader and may find its way to schools other than those which make art matters their specialty, for it seems to me that if the average schoolboy were taught as much about the history of the most useful and beautiful of the creations of the people of each age, as about the manner and quantity of warfare and slaughter in which they indulged, he would obtain as valuable a quality of information.
Art Schools of the Metropolitan Museum.
March, 1887