2. TheOrdoncmce of the Part I.

Chap. I. sustain a great Weight, or more or less capable of receiving thosedelicate Ornaments, either of Sculpture or Mouldings, wherewiththey may be enriched : for the Ornaments and Imbellifhments be-long also to the Ordonance 5 and give even more visible Chara-cters, to design and regulate the Orders, than the Proportions do 3in which, however, according to Vitruvius, the most essential Dif-ferences of the Orders consist.

An Order of Architecture, then, is that which is regulated bythe Ordonance, when it prescribes the Proportions of intire Co-lumns, and determines the Figure of certain Parts which are pro-per to them, according to the different Proportions which theyhave. The Proportions of Columns, take their Differences fromtheir Heights, greater or lesser, compar’d to their Thickness3 andthe Form of the particular Members, proper to their Proportion,takes its Differences from the Plainness, or Richness, of the Orna-ments of their Capitals, of their Bases, of their Flutings, and ofthe Modillions, or Mutules, which are in their Cornices.

Thus, in the three Orders of the Ancients , which are the Doric ,Ionic , and Corinthian 3 the Doric, which is the most maffy, has, inall its Parts, a Grosnest and Plainness, that distinguishes it fromthe others: for its Capital has neither Volutes, nor Leaves, norStalks: the Base, when it has one, is composed of very thick Tores,without Astragals, and with only one Scotia; its Flutings areflat, and fewer in number than in the other Orders, and its Mu-tules are no more than a plain Block, without any Scroul or Fo-liage. On the contrary, the Corinthian has, in its Capital, severaldelicate Ornaments, which Sculpture bestows on it, cutting two Rowsof Leaves, from which, proceed Stems or Stalks covered by Volutes:its Base is inricffd with two Astragals, and a double Scotia: itsModillions are delicately carv’d in Scrouls, adorn’d with Leaves,like those of the Capital. The Ornaments, of the Ionic Order,hold a Mean between the Extremes of the two others 3 its Base ha-ving no Torus next the Plinth, its Capital;;no Leaves, and its Cor-nice only Dentels instead of Modillions.

The Moderns have added to the three Orders of the Ancients , twoothers, whose Ordonance they have regulated, in proportion tothat of the Ancient Orders, for they have made one which they callthe Tuscan , more gross and plain even than the Doric , and onecali’d the Compojite , which they have made more compounded thanthe Corinthian , its Capital being made up of that of the Corinthian ,whence it has its Leaves, and of that of the Ionic , of which it hasborrow’d the Volutes, as we may fay, that the Corinthian is com-posed of the Ionic , whence it has the two Scotias, and the Astragals,in its Base, and of the Doric, having, in its Capital, a Neck or Vase,

which