23^ o« taste in architecture, -^t'g' *2,. 



increased, these places of worfhip, would be impro- 

 ved and rendered more magnificent, and to trees would 

 succeed pillars of stone, coarsely (haped, to imitatei 

 their form j imposts of stone would be laid acrofs 

 these uprights, and constitute circular temples after 

 the manner of Stonehenge*. 



Jn procefs of time these uprights would be formed 

 by the chisel to the beautiful taper of the smooth 

 barked tree, the imposts would be channelled and 

 grooved, to cast deep and distinctive fliadows, and last 

 of all, the obolo, and other members of the fhaft and 

 capital, would be superadded. The ornaments of 

 the capital and the architrave, pedestals, and other 

 refinements in architecture, belong to the age of high 

 refinement, caprice, and vanity, which we are after- 

 wards to describe. 



In the columniation of a temple, we behold the ori=. 

 ginal grove; and the adoption was natural, since, as 

 we are informed by Herodotus, that to the temple of 

 Diana, one of the most magnificent in his age, the ap- 

 proach was by an avenue of lofty trees, " trees 

 aspiring to heaven f," 



• This temple of the Belgse in Britain, is propably' alluded to in a frag- 

 ment of Hecat:eus, where it is recorded that certain Tyrian navig itorr, 

 visited, in the plains of North Britain, a huge temple dedicated to the 

 sun In the epistle ef Qaintus to his brother Marcus Tullius Cicero, in 

 the fif, h volume of this work, a description is given of the manner in 

 which those gigantic monuments were raised without any extraordinary 

 efforts. 



■\ This is represented in the structures we are pleased to call Gothic, 

 by the basilicon or nave of the church, that by which the priests ap- 

 proached in procefsion to the sanctuary, which was placed at the east end 

 of th« building adjoining to tiie high altar. Seethe very sti.slble ani. 



