584 



I there endeavoured to shew as distinctly as 

 possible, that the principles or qualities of beauty 

 as enumerated by Mr. Burke, could not be ap- 

 plied in the same degree to buildings as to other 

 objects ; and I particularly observed, that, as the 

 curves in architecture are regular and uniform, 

 those waving lines, whose easy, but perpetually 

 varying deviations give such a charm to a number 

 of objects, must chiefly be confined to the less 

 essential parts : and again, that angles, which cer- 

 tainly are not beautiful separately considered, must 

 in buildings perpetually occur. This, with the 

 rest of the paragraph, Mr. Knight appears never 

 to have read, or to have completely discharged 

 from his memory ; for he has reasoned on the 

 application of the qualities of beauty, just as if I 

 had made no restriction, but meant them to be 

 applied as absolutely and unreservedly to buildings 

 as to other objects. 



There is another restriction, which he at least 

 must have read, as it is in the part of my Essay 

 which he has quoted in his own work. I have 

 there said, after enumerating Mr. Burke's princi- 

 ples of beauty, " The temple which I have just 

 mentioned, has, I think, as much of those chief 

 qualities of general beauty, as the particular 

 principles of architecture will allow of." Now 

 one principle of architecture, and a very essential 

 one, is, that the main walls, whether straight or 

 circular, must be perpendicular : all variation 

 and departure from that direction are therefore 



