I

Part II. five Kinds of Columns.

times be permitted to difpence, when there is manifest Reeason soto do.

The second Abuse is the Swelling of Columns, of which, I havespoken, in the eighth Chapter os the first Part, where I have (hewnthat this Custom is without Reason, and that we do not find thatit has been practis’d in the Antique.

The third Abuse is the Coupling of Columns, which some can-not approve os, because there are scarce any Examples of it in theAntique. But the Truth is, if we may be admitted to make anyAddition to the Inventions of the Ancients , this Contrivance deservesto be receiv’d in Architecture, as having a considerable Beauty andConvenience. As to its Beauty, it is perfectly according to theTast of the Ancients , who affected those Buildings where the Co-lumns stood close together, beyond all others, and had nothing toobject, but the Inconvenience this Closeness caused, in the Mannerthey persorm’d it : for this Streight oblidg’d them to enlarge themiddle Intercolumnations, and was also the Occasion that Her -mogenes invented the Pseudodiptere, to enlarge the Isles, or Walks,of the Porches of the Temples, cali’d Dipteres, because, there, theIsles were double, having two Rows of Columns, with which, theWall of the Temple made two Galleries on the out-side. Now,this knowing Architect, who was one of the first Inventors of theAncient Architecture, thought fit to take away the Row of Columnsin the middle, and of two narrow Galleries, to make one thatwould have the Breadth of both, and of a Column besides. Fromthe Example of Hermogenes , the Moderns have introduced this newManner or placing Columns, and, by coupling them, have founda Way to make the Portico’s more free, and the Orders more grace-ful: For placing the Columns two and two, the Intercolumna-tions may be kept so large, as that the Doors and Windows, whichare in the Portico’s, be not darken’d, as they were among the An-cients, where these Openings were wider than the Space between theColumns; for in their most ordinary Methods of placing of Co-lumns, it was necessary, in an Intercolumnation of eight Feet, thatthe Columns should be of four or five Feet Diameter ; whereas,when the Columns are coupled, 't is sufficient if they have two, ortwo Feet and a half diameter: and by this Means, the large Inter-columnations have not the ill Appearance they would have 5 didthe Columns stand singly, one by one 5 which, in that condition,would seem too weak and incapable to support the Length of theEntablature, between Column and Column.

This Manner of placing Columns may be considers as a sixth,added to the five Ways that were in use among the Ancients , thefirst of which was cali’d Pycnostyle, because the Columns were plac’d