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the useful, although dress has always been used more or less for
ornament, and taste has changed by slow degrees. The primitive races
everywhere delighted in bright colors, and in most instances these
border on the grotesque in arrangement and combination. But many
people not far advanced in barbarism have colors artistically arranged
and dress with considerable skill. Ornaments change in the progress of
civilization from coarse, ungainly shells, pieces of wood, or bits of
metal, to more finely wrought articles of gold and silver.

_Primitive Shelters and Houses_.--The shelters of primitive man were
more or less temporary, for wherever he happened to be in his
migrations he sought shelter from storm or cold in the way most
adaptable to his circumstances. There was in this connection, also,
the precaution taken to protect against predatory animals and wild men.
As his stay in a given territory became more permanent, the home or
shelter gradually grew more permanent. So far as we can ascertain, man
has always been known to build some sort of shelter. As apes build
their shelters in trees, birds build their nests, and beavers dam water
to make their homes, it is impossible to suppose that man, with
superior intelligence, was ever simple enough to continue long without
some sort of shelter constructed with his own hands. At first the
shelter of trees, rocks, and caves served his purpose wherever
available. Subsequently, when he had learned to build houses, their
structure was usually dependent more upon environment than upon his
inventive genius. Whether he built a platform house or nest in a tree,
or provided a temporary brush shelter, or bark hut, or stone or adobe
building, depended a good deal upon the material at hand and the
necessity of protection. The main thing was to protect against cold or
storm, wild animals, and, eventually, wild men.

The progress in architecture among the nations of ancient civilization
was quite rapid. Massive structures were built for capacity and
strength, which the natives soon learned to {100} decorate within and
without. The buildings were made of large blocks of hewn stone, fitted
together mechanically by the means of cement, which made secure
foundations for ages. When in the course of time the arch was
discovered, it alone became a power to advance the progress of
architecture. We have seen pass before our eyes a sudden transition in
dwelling houses.

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