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The Or do stance of the Parti.

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CHAP. V.

Of the Length of Columns .

T is no less difficult to give a Reason forthe Diversity os the Lengths, whichArchitects have given to Columns ofthe same Order, than for the Differenceof the Heights of their Entablatures inthe several Orders. KitruYius makes theDoric Columns of Temples shorter thanthose of the Porches behind Theatres,without giving any other Reason thanthat they ought to have more Majesty in Temples than any whereelse. (palladio , who seems to have practic’d the same thing, in gi-ving a greater Height to Columns which stand on Pedestals, thanto those which have none, has done it still with less Reason : forit seems altogether needless to lengthen Columns, whose Pedestalsare already a sort of Lengthning. Serlio , who makes his Columna Third shorter when it stands detach’d, than when it does not,has taken a Liberty he has no Precedent for 5 and the Reasons hegives, why such a Column should be stronger than another, aregood, but he misapplies them : for since we may remedy the Weak-ness of insulate or detach’d Columns, by placing them nearer to-gether, I can’t fee why we should have Recourse to the Change ofProportions, without some greater Necessity.

Notwithstanding the great Diversity of Length that Co-lumns have in the fame Orders, according to different Authors,they still have a like Proportion in the several Orders, compari

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