The PREFACE.

any other Cause of their Agreeableness, than Custom. So ghat those who_first invented these Proportions, having scarce^any other Pule than theirFancy, according as that has changd, new Proportions havefieen introduc d, /twhich likewise pleas’d in their turn. Thus the Proportion of the Corinthian ~Capital, which was counted beautiful by the Greeks, was not approVd of by 'the Romans, the former allowing only the Diameter of the Column for itsHeight, and the latter having added a sixth part more. I know Very welly,it may be said, that when the Romans increas\l the Height of this Ca-pitals they did it with (Reason, for that it makes room to give the Stalksand Volutes a more agreeable turn , than could be done, where the Capital wasshort and wide. And sis on this account, that the Capitals of the greatColumns, of the Front of the Louvre, are made even higher than those ofthe Pantheon, after the Example of Michael Angelo, who in the Capitol,at Rome, has made them jlill higher than they are at the Louvre. Putthis only shews, that the Tafi of those ArchiteBs, who have approV d, ordo f ill approve the Proportion, which the Greeks gave their CorinthianCapitals, ought to be charged upon some other Principle than that os a Beau-ty, positive, convincing, and amiable in itself, existing in the thing as such,that is, as having this Very Proportion ; and that it is difficult to find anyother (Reason for this Esteem, than Custom and Prepossession. I confess,indeed, this Prepossession, as was said before, is founded on an infinitenumber of Beauties, convincing, positive and rational, which meeting toge-ther in Worf with this Proportion, have been able to render it so graceful,tho the Proportion contributed nothing to its Beauty, that the just EsteemHen have had for the entire Worf, has made them likewise fengly respeBall the Parts which compose it.

Thus it fell out in the first Works of ArchiteBure, where the Richness ofthe Materials, the Grandeur, the Magnificence and Delicacy of the Work-man ship, the Symmetry, that is, the Equality and just Correspondence, whichthe Parts have each to other, in keeping the fame Order and Situation, thegood Judgment in Things capable of it, and where other evident Reasons ofBeauty were found, the StruBures appear d so beautiful, and gaind suchAdmiration and Esteem, that they were judged fit to be the Rule and Pattern°f others, and as it was beltevd impostible to add to, or alter any Thing in allthese positive Beauties, without impairing those of the whole Workg. so theycould not imagine, but that the Proportions, which might really have been

( c ) otherwise,

IX