‹‹‹ Vitr. 2.1.5 | Table of Contents | Vitr. 2.1.7 ›››
6It is from such specimens we are enabled to form just ideas of the early method of building. Daily practice made the original builders more skilful, and experience increased their confidence; those who took more delight in the science making it their exclusive profession. Thus man, who, in addition to the senses which other animals enjoy in common with him, is gifted by nature with such powers of thought and understanding, that no subject is too difficult for his apprehension, and the brute creation are subject to him from his superiority of intellect, proceeded by degrees to a knowledge of the other arts and sciences, and passed from a savage state of life to one of civilization.
6From such specimens we can draw our inferences with regard to the devices used in the buildings of antiquity, and conclude that they were similar.
Furthermore, as men made progress by becoming daily more expert in building, and as their ingenuity was increased by their dexterity so that from habit they attained to considerable skill, their intelligence was enlarged by their industry until the more proficient adopted the trade of carpenters. From these early beginnings, and from the fact that nature had not only endowed the human race with senses like the rest of the animals, but had also equipped their minds with the powers of thought and understanding, thus putting all other animals under their sway, they next gradually advanced from the construction of buildings to the other arts and sciences, and so passed from a rude and barbarous mode of life to civilization and refinement.