156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



The total facade seems thus to have had the following vertical 

 dimensions : — 



Pediment, 12.8625 = 105' 

 Cornice, 5,359375 "^ 



Frieze, 5.359375 I Entablature, 12.8625 = 105' 



Architrave, 2.14375 J 



Column, 38.5875 = 315' 



64.3125 = 525' 

 Stylobate, 5.145 = 42' 



69.4575 = 567' 



The next point to determine is that of the spacing of the columns. 

 It was in the relations of the columns to each otlier on the fronts or 

 sides of his temple, that the Greek architect found scope for some of 

 the most exquisite rhythms of his art. The distances between them 

 were not to be precisely the same, so as to aftbrd a recurrence of pre- 

 cisely the same optical effects, and to repeat a measure by which the 

 building could be at once divided into so many separate equal parts ; 

 but each columniatiou was to be varied sufficiently to produce the ellect 

 upon eyes, so keen and finely disciplined as those of the Greeks, of 

 modulation, and of freedom restrained only by the general law of pro- 

 portion to which the whole building was subject. On the theoretic 

 plan, they were doubtless laid down with mathematical exactness ; in 

 the finished work, each interval had a delicate individuality, which 

 made it incommensurable with the rest. The column at each angle of 

 the building received almost invariably a slightly increased diameter, as 

 having apparently to support a heavier burden than the rest ; and, for 

 this and other reasons, the interval between it and the one next to it 

 was less than the ordinary interval. 



On the plan in the " Ausgrabungen zu Olympia," the diameter of a 

 corner column is given at M. 2,30, or 7,461 ft. Comparing this measure 

 with the diameter of the average columns, 7.35 ft., the ideal diameter 

 of the angle column appears to have been 7.4725 ; that is, its diameter 

 at the base was increased by .1225, or one minute of the normal 

 column. 



