ARCHITECTURE. The art of construction or building, according to certain proportions and rules, determined and regulated by nature, science, and taste. It is divided into three distinct branches—civil, military, and naval. The art of building had its origin in the desire implanted in man to procure protection from the outward elements and the vicis situdes of the changing seasons. There is something divine in man, which prompts him to look beyond the mere supply of his necessities, and to aim continually at higher objects. He, therefore.,soon expected from his habitation and hip temples more than mere utility. He aim6d at elegance, and architecture became by degrees a fine art, differing essential ly, however, from the other fine arts in these respects: J. That it is based on utility; 2. that it elevates mathematical laws to rules of beauty, correct proportion, and perfect sym metry. It is difficult, perhaps now impossible, to fix the exact period of the invention of architecture, as every art is perfected by degrees, and is the result of the labors of many.
In the early ages of the human race, the habitation must have been rude and imperfect; yet each nation, at every age, possessed its peculiar style of architecture, and marked its character by its symbolic monuments. Among such monuments we should place, as the chief, the Temple of Sol omon, from which the true knowledge of architecture became diffused throughout the world. Thus through ages has the institution been transmitted; and though deprived of its operative character, it is none the less efficient in its symbol ism and importance. The working-tools of an operative Mason have, therefore, become our symbols. There are five orders of architecture, viz: The Doric, the Tuscan, the Ionic, the Corinthian, and the Composite.