XI I

The PREFACE.

of the other famous ArckiteBs have done thus, who have neither been careful jpunBually to follow the Ancients, nor to conform to the Moderns*

The 'Design of these latter is nevertheless commendable, in that they haVeendeavour d to establish certain and determind Rules, to which, Recoursemight always be had for every thing capable of such Decision. But it wereto be wist)d, either that some one amongst them had had an Authority suffi-cient to make such Laws as should haVe been inviolably obferv’d 3 or thatsuch Rules could be found out, that had in themselves Truth so evident, or atleast, such (probabilities and Reasons as might make them preferable to allothers, that haVe been propos’d 5 that one way or other there might be some-thing fix d, constant, and establish’d in ArchiteBure, at least in regard tothe Proportions of the five Orders, which would not be Very difficult: forthese Proportions relate to things which need no Study, Search or Discoveryto be made of them, as there does of what concerns the Strength and ConVe-niency of (Buildings, where there is certainly room for a great many newand Very considerable Improvements ; neither are they of the "Nature ofthose Proportions, requisite in the Works of Military ArchiteBure, and in themaking all Sorts of Machines, where th Proportions are of th greatestImportance.

For ’tis certain it signifies little to the Beauty of a Building, whether inthe Ionic Order, for instance, th Height of the Dentel, in the Cornice,be precisely equal to th second Face of the Architrave 5 or whether th Rose,in the Corinthian Capital, descends lower than the Abacus 5 or whether theVolutes, in the Middle, rife just as high as the Pirn of the Vase of the Capi-tal : for although these Proportions were obferVd by the Ancients, and pre-ferib’d by Vitruvius, the Moderns have not followed them: and there canbe no other Cause assign d for it, than that these Proportions are not foundedupon necessary and positive (Reasons, as they are in many other Things, asin Fortifications and Machines, where a Line of Defence, for Example,cannot be longer than the reach of the Artillery, nor one Arm of a pair ofScales shorter than the other, without rendering these things absolutely use-less and defeBiVe.

For this (Reason, we may consider the two Manners of treating of theproportions of the five Orders, praBicd and receiv’d at present, as not being

the