Iy8 GRECIAN AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 0£l. I9, 



lefs (Irikingly beautiful. This may perhaps be con- 

 fidered as a deviation towards bad tafte, though it may 

 chance for a time to be highly approved of. The fame 

 thing may be faid of the flattening of columns, when 

 fluck upon a wall, which we now diftinguifli by the 

 name ol pilafie-rs. 



It was not liowever to be fuppofed, that when men 

 had once acquired a ftrong predeli£tion for this kind of 

 ornament, they fhould flop here. Going ftill farther 

 aftray, they forgot that magtuiude^ as w^ell as ifolationy 

 were circumflances that contributed flrongly to render 

 columns beautiful. In confequence of this overfight, 

 pillars have been degraded from their original office, 

 and have been diminiflied to the trifling fize of door- 

 pofts : nay, not content with this, architefts have 

 crowded them even into windows* Thus, in confe- 

 quence of the various breaks they there produce in the 

 heavy entablature and cornice, which muft even here 

 alfo accompany them, the fimplicity of a large building 

 is fo much deranged, as to produce an efl^eil: altogether 

 difFerent from what the general ftile of this mafl'y mode 

 of architecture was naturally calculated to produce. — 

 A mind free from prejudice would feemingly be in- 

 clined to believe that this inordinate fcndnefs for co- 

 lumns, and the incongruous ulVs to which they are 

 applied, were all deviations toM-ards a bad tarte. And 

 had not all thefe appUcations of columns been fo com- 

 mon among the Romans, and among the architects who 

 revived the Grecian ityle of archite£fure in Europe, as to 

 give thefcpraftices the fanction of their authority, I Ihould 

 be much mclincd to believe, that it would be generally 

 allowed to be a faulty pra£ticc. In proof of tlii^ opinion, 

 I would afk at every unprejudiced perfon, if ever his 

 mind was ftruck with the dignity of tlie appearance of 

 thofe puny columns, fo often to be met with, fcuck to 

 the wall on each fide the door of manv modern build- 

 ings ? Or if, when he calmly furveys that part of the 

 palace of Whitehall which was built by Mgo Jones 



