sir CHRISTOPHER WREN, knt. 363

would be fore shortened to nothing, to the Eye which beholds it from beneath,wifely left out this Member, which, if these optical Reasons did not prevail,would never have been used, lince, of all Members, this is that which mostloads the Cornice, and makes us, for want of Stones of such Vastness, and Moneyto move them, despair, in these Days, of coming near the Greatness of such aPillar and Entablement as is here used, where the Projecture of the Cornice isnear 5 Feet.

7. It was not therefore Unfkilfulnefs in the Architect that made him chusethis flat kind of Aspect for his Temple, it was his Wit and Judgment. EachDeity had a peculiar Gesture, Face, and Dress hieroglyphically proper to it;as their Stories were but Morals involved : and not only their Altars and Sacri-fices were mystical, but the very Forms of their Temples. No Language, noPoetry can so describe Peace, and the Estects of it in Men’s Minds, as the De-sign of this Temple naturally paints it, without any Affectation of the Allegory.

It is easy of Access, and open, carries an humble Front, but embraces wide,is luminous and pleasant, and content with an internal Greatness, despises an in-vidious Appearance of all that PJeighth it might otherwise justly boast of, butrather fortifying itself on every Side, rests secure on a square and ample Balis.

8. I know very well the Criticks in Architecture will scarce allow this Templeto be accurate, doubting a Decay of the Art in the Time of Vespasian, whofinished this Temple; but it was Claudius who began it, when we need notsuspect Corruption. Nor need we scruple that the Entablement of the Columnsis not continued, but that the Arches of the Ailes break higher than the Archi-traves ; for these Arches resemble so many Tribunals, which are usually made inthe Form of Niches, with the vaulted Head, adorned with a reticulate Work,but are not frequently set upon any Imposts, like the Arches of a Gate: but inthe Inside of the best Works, the whole Entablement is seldom precisely kept jsometimes the Architrave is not expressed, as within the Portico of the Templeof Vejla at Tivoli ; most frequently is the Freeze omitted, and always in the In-side of the Porticoes of Temples is the Cornice omitted, unless you will call theMouldings of the Listels a Cornice. Within the Portico of the Pantheon, overthe Capitals, runs a compound Moulding of Architrave and Cornice combined inone, yet all together make not the due Bigness of the Cornice : in the open Airit is as well the Protection from Weather as the Crown of the Pile, and there-fore not to be interrupted nor broken forward, without just Reason; within,where it is an Impediment, ’tis often omitted, as in this Cafe, by its great Pro-jection, it would have obscured the Descent of the Light. The same Order ofArches without Imposts is observed throughout, in the Portico before theTemple, in the Windows of the Fronts, in the Passages through the Tribunals,in the Niches; and though we have not extant more Examples of the like, yetI am apt to believe the Basilica, which were vaulted with Stone, followed thiskind of Fabrick; and as it is vast, and well poised, so it is true, well propor-tioned, and beautiful, and was deservedly esteemed by the Romans themselves,as one of the most considerable Structures of Rome.

Observations