ARCHITECTURE. 



BOOK I. 



This, however, is not the case, except in the shaft of the column 

 alone; and there, it, evidently appears, they had the smooth 

 bole of a tree in view ; otherwise they would not have em- 

 ployed the taper form, for a perfect cylinder would have suited 

 their purpose much better in so far as utility is concerned. The 

 capital and base of the Grecian column are different from every 

 thing in general nature; leaves never coming out in close clus- 

 ters from the trunk of a tree, as in the Corinthian and Compo- 

 site capitals ; nor circular concavities and convexities, or 

 square plinths, ever surrounding that part of the trunk of a 

 tree which joins it with the root, or ever existing on any part 

 between the ground and the lower branches. These things 

 would not be worth notice, were it not to shew, that we can- 

 not find any complete theory for the component parts of this 

 style of architecture in the materials of nature when in a sim- 

 ple state. We must have recourse, therefore, to the original 

 forms of temples, to the oldest Grecian antiquities, and to what 

 is said on the subject by the earliest writers on architecture. 



From these sources we may deduce, that the original Grecian 

 temples (in which, as already observed, buildings would first as- 

 sume their proper style,) were characterized, as to the general 

 mass, by a length and breadth much greater than the height, 

 * and by columns and horizontal bearings or entablatures, with 

 few arcades and arches. The columns were round and tapered, 



