OF REMOTE AGES. 345 
1. Their object in choosing so peculiar a style 
as the Polygonal, and fitting their blocks together 
with such minute accuracy, must either have been 
economy of labour, economy of material, or in- 
crease of strength and stability. The first of 
these could scarcely have been their aim, since 
the well-fitted Polygons must certainly demand 
greater care and toil than the regular masonry of 
the Greeks. It is difficult to see why they should 
have been anxious to economise materials, when 
their quarries were,-in almost every instance, 
close at hand. I am, therefore, disposed to think 
that they were guided to this peculiarity of con- 
struction, by an opinion of its superior capability 
of resisting earthquakes, and other violence, in 
which idea they have certainly not been disap- 
pointed ; for though these walls are chiefly found 
in a country which has been frequently the scene 
of subterranean convulsions, yet I could not dis- 
cover a single instance in which they appear to 
have suffered from such agency.” This view of 
the subject is confirmed, by finding that precisely 
the same principle, (the employment of large 
Polygonal masses,) was adopted by the Romans 
* Middleton, fol. p. 7. 
2x 
