This is all that remains of Grecian architecture in the present new building at Magdalen College; yet, from its simplicity, we are still pleased with it, and more from its utility, because it evidently appears to be a succession of similar apartments for the separate habitations of a number of members of the same society, equal in their rank and in their accommodations, and only claiming that choice of aspect or situation which seniority or priority confers. It has been observed, that the age of every manuscript is as well known to the learned antiquarian, from the letters or characters, as if the actual date were affixed. The same rule obtains in architecture. And even while we profess to copy the models of a certain era, we add those improvements or conveniences which modern wants suggest; and thus, in after ages the dates will never be confounded.
