1868.] Porcelain, Glass, arid Pottery. 349 printed on the forms of the Protean elements, Silica and Alumina. We may- learn from these forms the domestic manners of nations long since passed away. They tell us of times whereof we have no other records, fixing even the antiquity of man's appearance on the globe. By them we may trace the limits on the world's surface of empires great in history — of ancient Greece and her colonies— of Rome and her geo- graphical sway — of the rule of the fol- lowers of Mahomet — all these in the Old World. While, on our own conti- nent, the extent of the Aztec dominion is pointed out by them as clearly as though we possessed other apparently more permanent records. We find, too, in the history of the Vitreous and Ceramic A vts, some strange instances of psychologie.il phenomena — of a mania, for the possession of their products, absorbing minds, which the woi'ld calls great. We find Johnson strongly in- terested in Porcelain Manufacture ; and the Elector Frederick Augustus, of Saxonjr, receives from Frederick Wil- liam, of Prussia, twenty large vases, and recompenses him b} 7 making over to him his finest regiment of dragoons. In the time of William III., according to the Satirists, every great house in England " contained a museum of these grotesque bubbles," and a fine "lady valued her mottled-green pottery, as much as she valued her monkey, and more than she valued her husband." In the last century, even, it could be said of a great many, as is written of no less a personage than Horace Wal- pole, " China's the passion of his soul, A cup, a plate, a dish, a -bowl, Can kiudle wishes in his breast, Inflame with joy, or break his rest." FOUNDATIONS. By C. P. Dwyer, Architect. THERE is no single subject, in the entire range of an Architect's pro- fessional studies, that so intimately con- cerns his good name, as that of founda- tions. It calls for all his cautious in- vestigation and certainty of calculation, for on it rests that superstructure which, in its inception, has been his pride and his hope. How painful is the feeling, to a sensi- tive artistic mind, that a settlement has taken place, as too palpably displayed in the first apparent crack, or as it is too commonly, but ignorantly, termed, " check," in the masonry, or brickwork, of the walls. Such, however, is too frequently the case, in many of our large buildings ; and not unfrequently communicates its mischief to the plas- tering of partitions and ceilings, to an unsightly degree. To avoid this misfortune, it is neces- sary, then, to be particularly careful in the construction of the foundations, pro- viding against sinking, spreading, and sliding. Sinking This is, of all, the most to be guarded against, by Architects or Engineers, and too much caution cannot be exer- cised to prevent its occurrence. In the first place, the ground to be built upon must be thoroughly tested, or probed, by means of borers, at many points in the proposed line of the main walls, and wherever piers are to come. The corners should have their intended localities especially examined, and thoroughly understood. In cities, the drainage being already provided for, the action of undersapping, by subterranean lodgements of water, need not be dreaded. But, in the
