226 



It cannot be denied, however, that there 

 is no slight difficulty in the management of 

 chimnies in buildings of pure architecture. 

 With respect to their size, if they be made 

 large enough to become principal masses, 

 they lose that sort of congruity which de- 

 pends on the proportion of any object to its 

 use : and if they be grouped together irre- 

 gularly for the sake of picturesque effect, 

 they offend against the symmetry which is 

 required in architecture : yet, such small 

 square masses as we generally see, placed 

 at nearly equal distances from each other, 

 have a poor unconnected appearance. 



On these points little or no assistance can 

 be gained from pictures; I do not recollect, 

 at least in those of the higher schools, to 

 have seen any example of chimnies dis- 

 tinctly made out, where the building had 

 any pretension to architectural beauty or 

 grandeur. 



Little more assistance can be gained f rom 

 some of the most approved writers on ar- 

 chitecture. Palladio, for example, is totally 

 silent with regard to the form and effect of 



