I 791' GRECIAN AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 277 



diftincl idea of a whole, and have been fo blind as to 

 repeat the fame obfervation times innumerable, after 

 the dome of St. Paul's has been ere£ted under our own 

 eye ; though, when compared with the plain fimpHcity 

 of the infide of anv great central tower of our Gothic 

 cathedrals, it plainly appears to be only a mafs of con- 

 fufion, arifmg from the complication of pillars, archi- 

 traves, arches, cornices, pilafters, and other various 

 parts, piled above each other, without any conne£lion, 

 that affords the mofl ftriking contraft in favour of the 

 Gmplicity and fewnefs of parts of the Gothic, when 

 compared with the Grecian ftile of architeclure in this 

 - refpeft. Let us not, however, blame the Greeks, the 

 inventors of this kind of aichitefture, for thefe abfur- 



dities — They are perfectly innocent of the crime. 



Their objeft was to adorn the external part of their 

 temples, and they contrived devices by which that could 

 be, done with good efFe<Sl: ; but their imitators in after 

 times, blinded by an overweening prejudice in favour 

 of thefe artifts, permitted not themfelves to confider and 

 weigh the merits of their invention, and calmly to dif- 

 criminate what were the purpofes it was alone calcu- 

 lated to anfwerj but v/ith a bigotted veneration idoli- 

 zed the invention, and deemed it capable of anfwering 

 every purpofe more completely than any other device 

 that could be contrived. Ridiculous ornaments, there- 

 fore, in imitation of the grand and ftately column, have 

 been carved on mafTive pillars, to ferve as abuttments 

 for arches ; — nor could the architrave, which, as origi- 

 nally applied, was a miofl; eflential and neceflarypart of 

 the ftru^ture, be here difpenfed with ; — mimic co- 

 lumns, (landing on columns, arches within arches, and 

 cornices encircling one another, have be6n introduced 

 in the ififde of our buildings, where they ferve no other 

 purpofe than to perplex the eye, and to mark the po- 

 verty of ideas of the fcrvile imitator who thus mifap- 

 ^lied them. Ranges of columns, or the mean imita- 

 jlons of tliefc, piinjlasy have been piled above each 



