204 liOOSE THOUGIfTS ON THE CAUSE OF 



or dislike the structure ; whilst another in company, having diffe- 

 rent associations, would quite diflfer in opinion. It is impossible for 

 the utmost art to invest a building Avith this expression, and quite 

 as impossible to guard against its ill effects. 



It is too commonly the case that Architecture is considered 

 merely as an art of detail or of parts. If it is viewed in its proper 

 light — that is as the poetry of building — the end of the art will at 

 once be perceived. Style or order has nothing to do with it, further 

 than as a means of preserving a unity of expression which is indis- 

 pensable ; but styles or orders do not preserve this unity of them- 

 selves. The reason and imaginatinn of the artist has as much la- 

 bour to perform now as if there existed none. I have observed 

 builings in which some example of the ancients has been executed 

 with very great exactness, perfectly devoid of character. 



Perhaps the term most used with regard to architectural compo- 

 sitions is proportion. It is often used in a wrong sense, as if there 

 were some particular proportions abstractedly beautiful. Propor- 

 tions I conceive to be of two kinds : first, where each particular 

 part seems to do its service towards supporting the fabric, and to be 

 essential to that end : such is the meaning of the second expression, 

 viz., fitness, with regard to construction. The second proportion is 

 when the spaces or masses are so equally and justly balanced that 

 no part or member intrudes itself on the view, but all the members 

 are seen without tiring the sight. In such a case the eye takes in 

 the large spaces first, and then the smaller, until all are perceived, 

 without the mind or the eye being cloyed or fatigued. 



The principal examples of Grecian Doric seem to have attained 

 the perfection of both kinds of proportion ; and as these qualifica- 

 tions are productive of a very quiescent pleasure without much ex- 

 citing the imagination, they render this order very appropriate for 

 churches and chapels. Keeping the primary expressions always in 

 view, proportion may be called the distinctive marks of beauty. A 

 building, to be beautiful, should not be of a vast size, rather sparing 

 of ornament, which should be quite devoid of intricacy, with the 

 contrasts not too marked or glaring. In fact the chief causes of 

 beauty are proportion with just as much variety as will prevent 

 tameness and monotony without injuring the unity of expression or 

 the regularity. 1 will just observe that it has been customary to 

 ascribe beauty to uniformity and variety, which is, what it appears 

 to be, a contradiction. Regularity and variety is the more correct 

 term. 



When we see three or four men employed in hoisting up and set- 



