Part II. five Kinds of Columns. 105

izirn

I, i.ifyÆi

CHAP. VIL

Of the Abuse of the Qhange of Trofortions .

1 H E R E are some Things so rivetted inthe general Opinion of the ''World, thata Man would be thought ridiculous,should he attempt to scan them, thoughthey seem not of so undoubted Autho-rity, when more nearly look’d into;The Change of Proportions, in Archi-tecture, and Sculpture, which, they fay,ought to be made according to the dif-ferent Aspects, may justly be reckoned among this Number. Ar-chitects speak os this as a Point that gains them the greatest Repu-tation, and pretend that T is in the Practice of the Rules, they havefor this purpose, that the Excellency of their Art consists. How-ever, there are some of Opinion, that this Change is no such stu-pendous Matter, that these Rules have not been put in Execution^that even the contrary has been practis’d in the most approvedWorks, and that the Reasons, upon which they are grounded, arereceiv’d by common Consent, as they have been a long time, on-ly because they have pass’d without Examination.

This Examen is what I intend to make in this Chapter, that Imay conclude this Treatise with one Paradox, as I began it withanother, which also relates to the Change of Proportions^ For inthe Preface, I have endeavoured to shew that the greatest part ofthe Proportions of Architecture being arbitrary, and not of thenumber of those things that have a positive and natural Beauty,

D d there

MSA

wmirr!