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of, and in decomposing forces, and in determiningthe point to sustain them. The art of constructiondoes not form any part of his treatise. From thiscircumstance alone, were not their buildings in con-firmation, we may conclude that they were employed,like many modern architects, in the pleasing investi-gation of interior and exterior decoration, and internalarrangement, leaving the question of stability, andthe details of the means of execution, to the workman.Vitruvius informs us that, originally, in wide build-ings, supports were placed to support the culmen orridge-piece of the roof, and thence they took thename of columns. An example may be seen in thepseudodipteral Temple of Paestum ; in one at Egina ,in others more ancient, described by Norden in UpperEgypt ; as in that of Komombu, and of the Templeof the serpent Knuphis; and in the more modernTemple of Eaunus, erected by the Emperor Claudiuson the Celian Mount; now called St. Stephen theRound. Homer, in his Odyssey , often mentions arange of columns in the middle of rooms. It is evi-dent that the culmen could not require support, unlessthe external walls were thrust out by the lateral pres-sure of the rafters. Had the Greeks thought of theother expedient of supporting the culmen, namely,by strengthening the external w r alls by abutments, itis possible that the knowledge of the Greeks in archi-tecture would have extended beyond the arrangementof posts and beams, and porticos and colonnadeswould not have become a characteristic style ofarchitecture. It has been plausibly conjectured, thatthe pleasing effect of the first row of columns, underthe culmen, suggested the exterior rows of columns,from the simple Prostylos to the wood-like Dipteros.