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sir CHRISTOPHER WREN,

not, to be well adorned. No Roof can have Dignity enough to appear abovda Cornice, but the circular; in private Buildings it is excusable. The AncientSaffected Flatness. In Buildings where the View is sideways, as in Streets, it isabsolutely required, that the Composition be square, Intercolumnations equal,Projectures not great, the Cornices unbroken, and every thing strait, equal, anduniform. Breaks in the Cornice, Projectures of the upright Members, Variety,Inequality in the Parts, various Heights of the Roof, ierve only to confound thePerspective, and make it deformed, while the Breaches and Projectures are castone upon another, and obscure all Symmetry. In this sort of Building thereseems no Proportion of Length to the Heighth; for, a Portico the longer themore beautiful in infimtum : on the contrary, Fronts require a Proportion of theBreadth to the Heights; higher than three times the Breadth is indecent, and asill to be above three times as broad as high. From this Rule I except Obelisks,Pyramids, Columns, such as ‘Trajan' s, &c. which seem rather single Thingsthan Compositions: I except also long Porticoes, though seen direct, where theEye wandering over the lame Members infinitely repeated, and not easily find-ing the Bounds, makes no Comparison of them with the Heighth.

Vitruvius hath led us the true Way to find out the Originals of the Orders.When Men first cohabited in civil Commerce, there was Necessity of Forumsand publick Places of Meeting. In cold Countries, People were obliged to shutout the Air, the Cold, and the Rain ; but in the hot Countries, where Civilityfirst began, they desired to exclude the Sun only, and admit all possible Air forCoolness and Health : this brought in naturally the Use of Porticoes, or Roofsfor Shade, set upon Pillars. A Walk of Trees is more beautiful than the mostartificial Portico; but these not being easily preserved in Market-places, theymade the more durable Shades of Porticoes; in which we fee they imitated Na-ture, most Trees in their Prime, that are not Sapplings, or Dotards, observenear the Proportion of Dorick Pillars in the Length of their Bole, before theypart into Branches. This I think the more natural Comparison, than that tothe Body of a Man, in which there is little Resemblance of a cylindrical Body.The first Pillars were the very Boles of Trees turned, or cut in Prisms of manySides. A little Curiosity would induce to lay the Torus at the Top; and theConjecture is not amiss, to fay it was first a Band of Iron, to keep the Clefts,occasioned by the Sun, from opening with the Weight above; and to keep theWeather from piercing those Clefts, it was necessary to cover it with the Plinth,Or square Board. The Architrave conjoined all the Pillars in Length, the Couplesjoined them cross-ways. I suppose now, that the Ends of the Couples mightbe hollowed away, as in this Scheme. ****** [The reft is wanting.]

TRACT II.

M ODERN Authors who have treated of Architecture, seem generally tdhave little more in view, but to set down the Proportions of Columns, Ar-chitraves, and Cornices, in the several Orders, as they are distinguished into Dorick ,Jonick , Corinthian, and Composite-, and in these Proportions finding them in theancient Fabricks of the Greeks and Romans , (though more arbitrarily used thanthey care to acknowledge) they have reduced them into Rules, too strict andpedantick, and so as not to be transgressed, without the Crime of Barbarity;though, in their own Nature, they are but the Modes and Fashions of thoseAges wherein they were used; but because they were found in the great Struc-tures, (the Ruins of which we now admire) we think ourselves strictly obliged

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