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   The distribution and increase of knowledge among a people, are much
more dependent on the liberty and enterprise of the community, than is
generally supposed.    The fine arts in    particular have their rise and
fall,
which   are  generally  rapid, with   the  progress  and   decline of empires.
This was especially the case in the Roman states, for never was there a
people who had been distinguished for ages by the extent of their learning,
that so quickly lapsed into the grossest ignorance.
  The establishment of the Christian religion by the Emperor Constantine,
gave a new direction to the decorative talent of the people, who had been
before employed   in  adorning   heathen  temples and    buildings appropriated
to profane purposes.    Constantinople, which had been made the capital of
the empire, and the residence of the emperor, became the centre of all in-
tellectual power, and the resort of those who were still striving to support
the declining arts.  New   habits and opinions had been      enforced upon
the
people, and churches had taken the places of the ancient temples. The effect
of Christian manners upon the architecture, and consequently upon the deco-
rative styles of the period, was greater than we can even imagine in the
present day. The temples and statues which had so long been the admiration
of all civilized men, were destroyed to furnish materials for the erection
of
Christian churches and baptisteries, which in all the requirements of art
were as inferior to the noble structures from the materials of which they
were formed, as their uses were holy, and beneficial to mankind.
  The   Constantinopolitan  architecture was chiefly   distinguished from
 the
Roman by the peculiar form of the arch and column, as well as an entire
want of all that taste and careful regard to proportion which rendered the
classical style so pleasing.   The clumsy and distorted     construction
of the
column, marked the rapid decline of art in the interval between the reign
of the Caesars and of Constantine.    The capitals were carved in imitation
of
those which distinguished the Corinthian, Composite, and other styles, but
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