PART III. 



ARCHITECTURE. 



83 



CHAPTER V. 



OF THE GRECIAN STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE. 



It is commonly and most naturally supposed, that buildings 

 would in the early stages of society be constructed chiefly of 

 timber. This timber we may suppose either to be cut or di- 

 vided into such shapes and sizes as would best serve the in- 

 tended purpose ; or we may imagine the artist to have searched 

 in the woods and collected such small pieces as by being joined 

 together would effect what he wanted, with a much less degree 

 of labour than would be necessary in the other method. 



The Grecian style of architecture seems to have been in- 

 vented after the manufacturing in wood was known; it was 

 certainly not matured until that art, or the art of cutting in 

 stone, was brought to considerable perfection. This is evident 

 from the different mouldings of the cornices and the bases and 

 capitals of columns, which have scarcely any archetypes in na- 

 ture. Had the case been otherwise, we should still have been 

 able to distinguish a relation between most of the parts of co- 

 lumns, cornices, &c. and the trunks and branches of trees. 



