198 Report of the Labours of 
11. Some writers have asserted that the small buildings or 
tabernacles, which to the number of eight are distributed around 
its circumference, were added at the time of the consecration 
of the temple to the worship of the Christian religion: this 
mistake is entirely cleared up by the developments which 
M. Leclere gives of their construction. These demonstrate that 
it is and always has been connected with that of the body of the 
edifice ; and that those altars or tabernacles have existed from 
the origin, and have undergone no other alterations than those 
occasioned by successive reparations and the change of religion. 
12. The friezes of running palm-leaves, which M. Leclere 
has drawn on the frontispieces of these altars, as well as on the 
cornice of the interior order, are fully warranted by the holes 
which he found in these parts, indications which had not pre- 
viously been observed. 
13. Finally, various sections taken on the great semicircular 
and square niches distributed around the interior circumference, 
show that the construction of the Corinthian order which deco- 
rates them, is so connected with that of the body of the temple 
that it becomes impossible to suppose, as has generally been 
done, that this order was added afterwards. 
Such are the observations and researches which led M. Leclere 
to conclude: 
1. That the building of the Pantheon, from its original con- 
struction, has been destined to serve as a temple; and never 
formed part of the baths of Agrippa, with which it has net any 
direct communication. 
" 2. That the Corinthian order which decorates the interior, 
and that of the entrance portico, date from the epoch of the 
primitive construction of the edifice, and are not additions made 
to the circular part of the temple subsequent to the time of 
Agrippa. 
If we refer to those who have written on the subject, we find 
all of them to be of a contrary opinion. According to Michael 
Angelo, quoted by Vasari (Life of Sansovino), the Pantheon was 
the work of three architects, the first of whom built the interior 
order to its entablature, the second the attic, and the third the 
external portico. 
In order to set aside an opinion so generally adopted, other 
methods than simple reasonings are wanted. M. Leclere was 
aware of this; and freeing himself from all spirit of system, guided 
merely by the light of actual observation, he has had the merit 
of being the first to throw true light on those important ques- 
tions, by means of almost ocular demonstration. 
The results which he thus obtained deserve the more confi- 
dence, that they have not been admitted by him until after having 
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