Books.
Æsthetic Principles: By Henry Rutgers Marshall, M. A. Macmillan & Co. 1895. 201 pages. $1.25.
Probably many readers of The Brochure Series have struggled as has the writer (and possibly some are still in an unsettled state of mind in consequence) over the abstruseness of the current works upon the philosophy of art, trying to find some obscure foundation on which to build for themselves a theory of æsthetics. To such, and to all others who have any wish to reason connectedly on art matters, Mr. Marshall's little book will be interesting and instructive reading. It is remarkably clear and understandable even to a reader with no special training in metaphysical reasoning, and in point of literary style and carefully considered use of language it is a genuine treat. Its object is to explain, in as direct and simple language as possible, the nature and origin of our ideas of the beautiful, and the logical deduction to be made from the premises, which will guide us in the practice of the fine arts, or the production of beauty of some special type.
As Mr. Marshall is an architect, many of his illustrative examples are drawn from architecture, and the book on this account is especially interesting to architects.
Rational Building: Being a translation of the article "Construction" in the Dictionnaire Raisonnè de l'Architecture Française of M. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. By George Martin Huss, Architect. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1895. 367 pages. Illustrated. $3.00.
This book, although confined entirely to the consideration of the French Gothic, will be found of great value to students. Many of our readers are of course familiar with it in its original form, while others may have followed the translation as it has appeared from time to time in the pages of the American Architect.
It will be mainly useful from its historical and theoretical bearing, as all that is here included which is of practical value for application to modern uses can be found elsewhere in more available shape. The illustrations form a most important feature in the usefulness of the book. The remarkable diagrammatic drawings of Viollet-le-Duc are famous for their clearness and the amount of information which they convey.
The table of contents includes the following headings: Discussion of General Conditions and Principles; Roman and Romanesque Vaults; Origin of the Pointed Arch; Development of Principles; Vaults; Materials; Thirteenth Century Developments; Civil and Military Construction.