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Part II. five Kinds of Columns.

There are, besides, some other Abuses, of less Importance, asthe making Imposts to profile against Columns; giving them moreProjecture than the Pilasters have, against which their Profiles come,as is done in S. Peter's at %)me ; the making the Cornice of oneStory, serve for the Rail, or Parapet, to a Terrafs, or to the Win-dows of another Story, above ; the continuing the Windory-stoolto make a Facia round the Building; the breaking, or returning,the Mouldings on the Corners of Doorcases, and Window-jambs,with a Knee (as our Workmen term it) as Scamozgi has done, in a:very disagreeable Manner; the making, at the Sides of Doors, andWindows, under the Cornices, that cover them, Corbels which donot support these Cornices, the true Manner being to make the Bed-moulding, or those Mouldings, under the Corona, advance, andmake a Projecture over the Scroul or Corbel: for this Abuse is nolels to be condemned, than that of the Cartoozes, which Palladio somuch blames; there not being more Reason to find Fault with theuse of Cartoozes to bear any thing, because they are not capableof doing it, than there is that Corbels, which are design d to sup-port, should carry nothing.

Pall ad io has designed Scrolls, or Bragets, in the Temple ofManly Fortune , and in that of Mistnes , calfd the Square-houfe, whichimmediately support the Corona. But the Manner we make themat present, has something more elegant than is in those of the An-tique , whose Proportions, VttruVius has given us, which are thefame with those in the Temple of Manly Fortune : for these Corbelsof the Antique , are strait and flat, not having the spiral Circum-volutions of their Volutes, prominent, like those of the AntiqueComposite Capitals, as they are now-a-days made. There are ofthese Corbels, according to the Antique, in the noble Portico-,which that excellent Architect, Mr. Mercier, has built to the Churchof the Sorbone, on the Side of the Court, which have no good Ef-fect. And this confirms what was said in the Beginning of thisChapter 5 namely, that there are Things, in Architecture, whichmay be call’d abusive, because they are not conformable to theRules of the Ancients, but, however, are very good, and may,without Scruple, be put in Practice.

I find, also, an Instance of this, in the Roses that are put be-tween the Modillions, in the Soffite of the Corona, of the CorinthianCornice. These Roses §.re usually of a different Manner, in theAntique: but, I think, they are not to be blam’d, who take theLiberty to make them all alike, after the Example of those in theBaths of Diocletian. The Reason is, because there ought to be at K k Distinction