CHAP. II. Of Imagina tion. science; but the mere frivolous distinction of possessing that, which others have not, is such as no man of common sense can reasonably be supposed ambitious of. 44. Nearly connected with propriety or congruity, is symmetry, or the fitness and proportion of parts to each other, and to the whole: a necessary ingredient to beauty in all composite forms; and one, which alone entitles them, in many instances, to be called beautiful. It depends entirely upon the association of ideas, and not at all upon either abstract reason or organic sensation; otherwise, like harmony in sound or colour, it would result equally from the same comparative relations in all objects; which is so far from being the case, that the same relative dimensions, which make one animal beautiful, make another absolutely ugly. That, which is the most exquisite symmetry in a horse, would be the most gross deformity in an elephant, and vice versá: but the same proportionate combinations of sound, which produce harmony in a fiddle, produce it also in a flute or a harp. 45. In many productions of art, symmetry is still more apparently the result of arbitrary convention; that is, it proceeds from an association of ideas, which have not been so invariably associated; and which are, therefore, less intimately and firmly connected. In a Grecian building, in which the relative proportions of the different orders of columns were not observed, a person skilled in architecture would instantly discover a want of symmetry; which, to another of even more correct taste, as far as correct taste depends on just feeling, may be utterly imperceptible: for there is no reason whatever in the nature of things, or in the analogy of the parts, why a Corinthian capital should be placed on a slenderer shaft than a Doric or Ionic one. On the contrary, the Corinthian, being of the largest, and consequently of the heaviest proportion, would naturally require the column of the largest dimensions, proportioned to its height, to sustain it. 1 46. The appropriation of particular proportions to the columns of particular orders is, I believe, of no higher antiquity than the practice of placing one order over another; of which, I know of no instance anterior to the theatres and amphitheatres of the Romans; the first of which, excepting temporary structures of wood, was that of Pompey*. In the arrangement of I am aware that Pausanius describes a, temple at Tegea, said to have been designed by Serpas, in which a range of Corinthian was placed over one of Ionic columns: but as this temple was built on the site of one burnt in the second year of the xcvrth Olympiad, we may fairly conclude, considering the usual slow progress of these expensive structures in inferior cities, and the CHAP. II. Of Imagina tion. CHAP. II. Of Imagina tion. the different orders in buildings of this kind, the plainest was naturally placed lowest, and the most enriched, highest; and hence the plainest was made the most massive; and the most ornamented, the most light and slender: but as this distinction of proportions arose merely from the relative positions, which they held, when thus employed together, and not from any inherent principle of propriety; there can be no other reason, than that of established custom, why it should be observed, when they are employed separately, and independent of each other. 47. In the Grecian buildings, which are anterior to any customary rules of this kind, the proportionate thickness of the columns, in each of the three orders, which are properly Grecian, appears to have been diminished gradually as the art advanced towards refinement: and, as the Doric was the earliest, and the Corinthian the latest invented, the proportions of the first are, of course, the most massive, and those of the last the most slender. It was only by repeated experiment, and long observ state into which those parts of the Peloponnesus soon after fell, that the upper range was added under the Roman emperors. See Pausan. Arcadie, xli. In all the temples, known to be of remote antiquity, both in Europe and Asia, the two ranges of columns are of the same order. ation, that men learned the power of a vertical shaft to bear a perpendicular weight; and therefore, in the infancy of the art, made their columns unnecessarily large and ponderous; which is observable, not only in the primitive efforts of the Greeks and Egyptians, but also in the imitations made, at the revival of the art, by the Saxons, Goths, Franks, Lombards, &c. In all, the progress has been from excessive ponderous solidity to excessive lightness; though as the Greeks and Romans bound themselves by certain rules of proportion, before they had run into the latter extreme, they never indulged themselves in the extravagant licence of the Gothic architects, who recognized no rules, but worked merely for effect. 48. Under the Macedonian kings and first Roman emperors, the refinements of accurate proportion appear to have been carried to a frivolous excess: for though they may have contributed to preserve that elegance and purity of taste, which distinguishes all the works of those periods, yet they certainly tend to restrain genius, and prevent grandeur of effect, which can only be produced by contrast, which is the direct opposite of proportion. Contrast appears. to have been the leading principle of the Gothic architects, and as its operation upon the mind, * Vitruv. lib. iii. CHAP. Of Imagina tion. СНАР. II. Of Imagina tion. as well as that of proportion, is by the associ- The contrivers of this refined and fantastic Gothic seem to have aimed at producing grandeur and solemnity, together with lightness of effect; and incompatible as these qualities may seem, by attending to effect only, and considering the means of producing it as wholly subordinate, and in their own power, they succeeded to a degree, which the Grecian architects, who worked by rule, never approached. 49. The eye always measures the whole of an edifice by a scale taken from the parts; and, |