244 



thest building, and the effect of that sym- 

 metry in their perspective gradation ; as 

 likewise of all the lines, as they go off in 

 the same direction towards the misty hori- 

 zon.* When he has gradually Considered 

 and fixed in his mind the whole arrange- 

 ment, continuity, and dependancc of one 

 part upon another, let him suddenly con- 

 ceive the whole broken and disturbed. 

 Where the eye now follows the winding 

 columns of the portico, and finds the same 

 line continued in the cornice, and then 

 again in the balustrade, it might see an un- 

 connected group of pillars, with part of the 

 entablature and balusters remaining ; then 

 a sudden breaks and then other mutilated 



* I am here speaking of symmetry, not merely as an object 

 of the understanding, but also as it affects the sense, by the 

 ease and facility with which the eye follows correspondent 

 lines. The more distinct that correspondence, the greater 

 that facility ; and this seems to me to be one principal 

 cause of the difference of character, between the Grecian 

 and the Gothic architectures : the symmetry of the former 

 is obvious — that of the -latter is often concealed by the 4sf- 

 •tHcacy of its parts, 



