The Useful Arts Employed in the Construction of Dwelling Houses. Second Edition

THE SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND.
MDCCCLI.
LONDON: SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET.
The dwellings of mankind, at first rude and simple in the extreme, increase in complexity as their inhabitants advance in civilization. Primitive dwellings are scarcely distinguished by signs of superior skill or sagacity above the holes and nests of the lower animals. The hut of the Hottentot may be considered as an inverted nest, and it is certainly not more ingenious than the nests of many birds; but where man constructs such a habitation for himself, he is invariably in a low state of civilization. The wants of the bird are few and simple, and the nest is a temporary abode annually constructed and annually deserted: the wants of man, in a state of nature, are almost as limited, and thus the Hottentot’s hut affords him as good a nest as he desires. But when he steps forth into the rank which the Creator has destined him to fill; when he feels that he is a responsible being, the creation of an Almighty Power to whom worship is due; when he finds that the productions of the earth are capable of being rendered useful to him by the exercise of his ingenuity, and that his own mental powers are capable of being developed by communion with, and by the assistance of his fellow-men;—then the hut—the inverted nest—is no longer equal to his necessities. He makes implements, and he must have a place to shelter them; he cultivates grain, and he requires a store-house for it; he collects and records the thoughts and the wisdom of his predecessors, and he must have a roof to cover these precious mementos: unlike other animals, he requires fire for the preparation of the greater portion of his food; and his fire, as well as his utensils, must be well defended from without:—in short, his wants are so multiplied by the cultivation of his reason, that a house has become necessary to him. The beasts of the field and the birds of the air have certain natural instincts given to them which guide them through life, and are perpetuated in their offspring; the same routine goes on race after race without the operation of what we term improvement. Not so with man: he is a progressive being: he steps forth beyond the limits of mere animal life, and has a mental existence, with wants created by it, and depending on it; wants which are not known to him when considered as a mere animal.