XIV

The PREFACE.

at least, to he esteem d the mo si likely , since it is founded upon a positiveReason, which is the Regularity of the Division of the Whole , into three e-qual (parts. 'This Method is that which the Ancients follow’d, aitd thatVitruvius made use of in the Explanation of the Proportions he has given,where he always proceeds hy methodical Divisions , eajie to be retain d ; andthis Way wets left off by the Moderns, for no other Reason, but because theyfound they could mt accomodate it to the irregular Measures that are in theMembers of the noble Remains of Antiquity, which are found Very diffe-rent from what Vitruvius hath left us : so that they would have been ob-ligd to alter them, in some measure, to reduce them to the regular Propor-tions, which this Method requires : and yet the greatest part of Architects arepersuaded that these Works would haVe loft all their Beauty, if one Minuteonly had been taken from, or added to, any of the Members, other thanwhat the admirable Artifs of Antiquity assign d them.

For ’tis hardly to be imagmd what a superflitious Reverence ArchiteBshave for those Works we call Antique, in which, they admire every thing,hut principally the Mystery of their Proportions, which they are pleas’d tocontemplate with a profound Respect, without daring so much as to undertakean Inquiry into the Reasons, why the Dimensions of a Moulding were nota little lesser or greater 5 which is a Thing, we may well presume, wasunknown, even to those that made them. This would not be so f range,were we affurd that the Proportions, we fee in these Worst, were not alter d,and somewhat different, from those which the first Inventors of ArchiteBureestablish'd ; or were we of the Opinion of Villalpandus, who pretends thatGod, by a particular Inspiration, taught all these Proportions to the Archi-teBs of Solomon's Temple, and that the Greeks, whom we esteem the In-ventors, learn d them only, froyn those ArchiteBs.

It is true , however , that this excessive RespeB, ArchiteBs have for theAntique, which is common to them with the most part of those that makeProfession of humane Sciences, whose Opinion is, that there is nothing madenow, comparable with those of the Ancients, takes its Rife, as unreasona-ble as it is, from that true RespeB which is due to holy things. It is wellknown, that the Barbarity of the latter Ages, in the cruel War made uponall the Sciences , which totally extirpated them, Theology only excepted, wasth P{eajon that what little Learning remain d haYmg taken SanBuary in the

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