33S 



but be has adopted a mode of warfare to which he 

 seems very partial, and of which I shall hereafter 

 have occasion to produce a still more striking 

 example — that of inferring from one careless or 

 inaccurate expression, a fundamental error in 

 judgment, and a whole train of false and absurd 

 ideas. Speaking of the temple, " Instead of 

 being free from angles," says he, " every thing is 

 composed of angles : the entablature consists of 

 angles projecting beyond each other : the soffit of 

 angles indented within each other : the capitals 

 are clusters of angles, obtuse iu the abacus, and 

 acute in the foliage ; while the columns being 

 fluted, exhibit circles of angles round every shaft, 

 and stand upon a basement surrounded by a cor- 

 nice composed chiefly of angular mouldings." — 

 If it could be believed, that after having stated 

 that from the nature of architecture angles must 

 perpetually occur ; and after having mentioned 

 that this particular temple was surrounded by 

 columns, I still could conceive it to be positively, 

 not comparatively free from angles, I should cer- 

 tainly have deserved the sarcasm of my friend, 

 without the compliment by which it is softened : 

 for I should have shewn that 1 was " deprived even 

 of the ordinary powers of perception by the fasci- 

 nations of a favourite system." But, on the other 

 hand, if no one can believe that having mentioned 

 the columns, 1 could not be ignorant that their 

 capitals, and the entablature they supported, could 



