3 °8

THE LIFE OF

" World, and would doubtless have still subsisted, and made good their“ Claim, and what is recorded of them ; had not the Goths , Vandals , andother barbarous Nations, subverted and demolished them, together with" that glorious Empire, where those stately and pompous Monuments stood ;“ introducing in their stead, a certain fantastical and licencious Manner of“ Building, which we have since called Modern or Gothick. Congestions of" heavy, dark, melancholy, and monkish Piles, without any just Propor-“ tion, Use or Beauty, compared with the truly ancient; so as when we“ meet with the greatest Industry, and expensive Carving, full of Fret and" lamentable Imagery; sparing neither of Pains nor Cost ; a judicious Spec-" tator is rather distracted or quite confounded, than touched with that Ad-“ miration, which results from the true and just Symmetry, regular Propor-" tion, Union, and Disposition; and from the great and noble Manner in" which the august and glorious Fabricks of the Ancients are executed.

It was after the Irruption and Swarms of those truculent People from theNorth ; the Moors and Arabs from the South and East, over-running thecivilized World; that where-ever they fixed themselves, they soon began todebauch this noble and useful Art; when instead of those beautiful Orders,so majestical and proper for their Stations, becoming Variety, and other or-mental Accessories ; they set up those slender and misshapen Pillars, or ratherBundles of Staves and other incongruous Props, to support incumbent Weights,and ponderous arched Roofs, without Entablature; and though not withoutgreat Industry (as M. D'Aviler well observes) nor altogether naked of gaudySculpture, trite and busy Carvings; ’tis such as gluts the Eye, rather then grati-fies and pleases it with any reasonable Satisfaction : For Proof of this (withouttravelling far abroad) I dare report myself to any Man of Judgment, andthat has the least Taste of Order and Magnificence; if after he has lookeda while upon King Henry the Vllth’s Chappel at Wejlminjler , gazed on itssharp Angles, Jetties, narrow Lights, lame Statues, Lace, and other Out-work, and Crinkle-crancle; and shall then turn his Eyes on the Banquetting-houfe built at Whitehall by Inigo Jones , after the ancient Manner; or on whathis Majesty’s Surveyor , Sir Chrijlophcr Wren , has advanced at St.Paul's, andconsider what a glorious Object the Cupola, Porticoes, Colonades, and otherParts present to the Beholder, or compare the Schools and Library at Oxfordwith the Theatre there ; or what he has built at Prinity-College, in Cambridge ,and since all these, at Greenwich and other Places; by which Time ourHome-traveller will begin to have a just Idea of the ancient and modernArchitecture : I fay, let him well consider, and compare them judicially, with-out Partiality and Prejudice ; and then pronounce which of the two Mannersstrikes the Understanding as well as the Eye, with the more Majesty and solemnGreatness; tho’ in so much a plainer and simple Dress, conform to the re-spective Orders and Entablature; and accordingly determine to whom thePreference is due : Not as we said, that there is not something of solid, andodly artificial too, aster a Sort: but then the universal and unreasonable Thick-ness of the Walls, clumsy Buttresses, Towers, fharp-pointed Arches, Doors,and other Apertures, without Proportion : nonsensical Insertions of variousMarbles impertinently placed ; Turrets and Pinacles thick set with Monkiesand Chimeras, and Abundance of busy Work and other Incongruities dissipateand break the Angles of the Sight, and so confound it, that one cannot con-sider it with any Steadiness, where to begin or end ; taking off from that nobleAir and Grandeur, bold and graceful Manner, which the Ancients had so well,and judiciously established : but, in this Sort have they and their Followersever since filled not Europe alone, but Asia and Africa besides, with Moun-tains of Stone, vast and gigantick Buildings indeed, but not worthy the Nameot Architecture, &c.

SECTION 1