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airy; of a delicate frame; in a great mea

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sure free from angles; and comparatively "small. I am speaking of it, as it must have "been in its perfect state, when the tint of the

stone, and the finishing and preservation of "the parts, corresponded with the beauty of its "general form*.”

The ruin of the temple of Vesta, vulgarly called the Sibyls' temple, at Tivoli, has unquestionably been very generally admired for its beauty, and perfectly accords with the principles that I am endeavouring to establish; though not at all with those of my antagonist, which can only allow it to be picturesque. What was the effect of the original temple upon the minds of those, who saw it entire, we do not know but admitting it to have been that of beauty still more perfect, it remains to be seen how far, upon a more accurate inspection, and more detailed examination of its constituent parts, it will answer the purpose for which it is cited.

Compared with the Pantheon or the Parthenon, it was certainly small; but, compared with any edifice of similar plan (the proper object of comparison), it was by no means so for though smaller in diametre than that of the same goddess at Rome, it appears to have been

Essays on the Picturesque, Vol. II. p. 273.

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altogether a larger, more massive, and more considerable building, than either that or any other of the kind known.

So far from being smooth, it is all over rough with sculpture, and built of the most rugged, porous, unequal stone, ever employed in a highly wrought edifice.

The parts, instead of having any variety or even difference in their direction, all converge to one centrical point; as they necessarily must in a building completely circular. Even the columns have a horizontal inclination inwards, equal to their perpendicular diminution upwards; which shows a most scrupulous attention to exclude every appearance of such variety.

Instead of being free from angles, every thing is composed of angles: the entablature consists of angles projecting beyond each other; the suffit of angles indented within each other; the capitals are clusters of angles, obtuse in 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 cornice composed chiefly of angular mouldings.

So far from being of a delicate frame, or with little appearance of strength, it is remarkable for nothing more than the compact firmness of its construction, which nothing but some convulsion of nature, or the mischievous ex

ertions of man could have destroyed; nor is its superiority in beauty over all the numerous imitations that have been made of it, owing to any thing more than to its superior size, strength, and variety of rough angular enrichments. It is founded on a projecting point of rock enlarged into a square area by vast substructions of arches, supporting a basement of solid stone, above forty-five feet in diametre, and nearly eight feet thick; on which was placed a circle of columns, each shaft of one stone, upwards of twenty feet long, and two feet and a half thick, supporting a massive stone roof, and surrounding a tower of rough masonry of about twenty-eight feet in diametre.

CHAP.

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The colour is that of the rough Tiburtine stone, which could never have been other than a dingy brown; and though à circular Corinthian portico surrounding a circular tower, and thus appearing, by the laws of perspective, to retreat from the eye, is extremely light and airy, upon a principle, which shall be considered in the proper place, this is a species of lightness no way connected with any of Mr. Burke's characteristics of beauty; nor at all incompatible with the most manifest firmness and stability of construction: The temple of Vesta at Rome appears to have been after the same design, with twenty columas instead of eighteen, of larger size, though slenderer pro

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portions; and probably without the stone roof, as well as massive basement and substructions; defects, which, on the principles in question, should have enhanced rather than diminished its beauty yet this temple having become a dirty church in a city, instead of a beautiful ruin in a romantic situation, has scarcely been noticed a plain indication of the real causes of the celebrity of the other.

The buildings most consonant to the above definitions of beauty are the Hindoo domes, shaped like bee-hives, and composed of a thin shell of half burnt brick, encrusted in a smooth coat of the plaster called chinam, which is white, delicately tinged with red, blue, or yellow. Their undulating flow of outline tapered to a point; their frail and delicate structure; their clear bright colours, neither strong nor glaring, their smooth unbroken surface; their small size, comparative to that of the buildings to which they usually belong, all exactly accord; nor is any thing wanting but a variety in the direction of the parts; and that the buildings themselves always abundantly supply. Yet I do not believe that either Mr. Burke or his commentator ever found such a building beautiful: for, in practice, their natural good taste triumphed over their theories, and prevented them from applying the characteristics of beauty belonging to a rose, a violet, a bead, or a bon

net, to any object of so different a kind, as a piece of architecture; in which, either Addison's principle of decoration, Montesquieu's of contrast, or Reynolds's of congruity, might afford a much juster criterion, than either. frailty of frame, undulation of outline, or delicacy of colour; as I shall endeavour to show in the sequel.

25. I have already stated a position of the latter writer, that if a man born blind were to recover his sight, and the most beautiful woman were brought before him, he could not determine whether she was handsome or not; which is unquestionably true: for till he had verified and ascertained the evidence of his sight by that of touch, he could not discover that she was a being of his own species; or, indeed, any thing more than a fleeting vision—a diminutive picture or impression upon the pupil of his eye. The author, however, grounds it upon a different reason; namely, that no man can judge whether an animal be beautiful or deformed in its kind, who has not seen many of that kind: wherefore, he adds, that if two women, the one the most beautiful, and the other the most deformed, were placed before this blind man restored to sight, he could no better determine to which he should give the preference, having seen only those two. I believe, however,

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