ARCHITECTURE, either practically considered or viewed as an art of taste, is a subject so important and comprehensive in itself, that volumes would be requisite to do it justice. Buildings of every description, from the humble cottage to the lofty temple, are objects of such constant recurrence in every habitable part of the globe, and are so strikingly indicative of the intelligence, character, and taste of the inhabitants, that they possess in themselves a great and peculiar interest for the mind. To have a "local habitation,"-a permanent dwelling, that we can give the impress of our own mind, and identify with our own existence,-appears to be the ardent wish, sooner or later felt, of every man: excepting only those wandering sons of Ishmael, who pitch their tents with the same indifference, and as little desire to remain fixed, in the flowery plains of Persia, as in the sandy deserts of Zahara or Arabia.
