Chap. XXXI.

PRINCIPLES OF PROPORTION.

1579

CHAP. XXXI.

PRINCIPLES OF PROPORTION.

For a full and comprehensive view of architecture, we must refer the reader to theEncyclopaedia on that subject so ably written and illustrated by my friend Mr. JosephGwilt , and confine our attention to the principles and science of building, the moreimmediate province of the civil engineer. “ Architecture,” says Vitruvius , “ has for itsparents practice and theory ; the first is the result of the frequent and continued contem-plation of the mode of executing any given work, or the operation of the hands for theconversion of the material in the readiest way: theory is the reasoning produced bythat contemplation, demonstrating and explaining that the material wrought answers theend proposed, and on him alone who is familiar with both branches of the art can the titleof architect be justly bestowed ; the theory, however, may be studied by all, but the resultsof practice can only be fully appreciated by the practitioner ; and the civil engineer shouldnot only be acquainted with all the sciences, of which an epitome has now been presented tohim, but have a thorough knowledge of the principles of architecture, and the character ofeach particular style; but that branch which is most intimately connected with hispractice, the proportioning of masses, or the arrangements for the supports of an edifice,must be the objects of his unwearied study and attention.

We shall therefore endeavour to point out, as briefly as possible, the general featureswhich in this respect belong to the three great divisions, viz. the Greek, the Roman, andthe architecture of the middle ages. That part of Greece which lies to the south ofThessaly, near the foot of Blount Othrys, is supposed to have contained the capital ofHellen, who left his kingdom to his three sons JEolus, Dorus, and Xuthus, the second sonbecoming the founder of the Dorian race, and the youngest that of the Ionian.

Architecture can hardly be said to have existed as a science until the Dorians perfectedthat style, which we find in the temples and other buildings scattered throughout thoseislands and countries in the Mediterranean Sea which received Doric colonies. Thedwellings of these early civilisers of mankind were plain and simple; the laws of Lycurgus forbade the use of any carving or decoration, their doors being fashioned only with the saw,and their roofs by the axe; but in their temples and public edifices, they were encouragedto bestow more labour and superior workmanship : the Dorian architecture appearsnever to have undergone any great change ; the same style, and almost the same proportions,are found in most of the examples that have been spared us.

These people spread a knowledge of the arts of construction wherever they settled; andwe find them at a very early period in the northern districts of Greece , under the Olympianchain of mountains, in the island of Crete , on the eastern side of the northern coast, on whichis situated the town of Cnossus with its harbours, Heracleum and Apollonia, at whichlatter places their religious rites were celebrated. After having overrun Thessaly, they sentfrom thence a colony to the district of Driopis, called the Doric Tripolis, between (Etaand Parnassus, from the union of the three cities Basum, Cytinium, and Erineus, and,subsequently, when Acyphas was added, Tetrapolis.

The country next o&cupied by the Doric tribes extended from the river Sperchiusbeyond (Eta to Parnassus and Thermopylae, but the most important of their migrationswas that called the Return of the Heraclidse. After this period they were for a short timedriven into Attica, where they received protection from Theseus , and when again settled inthe Peloponnesus, they sent out colonies to Rhodes, Cnidus , and Cos, led by princes of theHeraclidse from Argos and Epidaurus . Another colony from Trcezen was established atHalicarnassus. The towns which composed the Tripolis of Rhodes, together with Cnidus ,Cos, and Halicarnassus, formed the Doric league called Hexapolis, but after the separationof the latter place, Pentapolis : this league met on the Triapian promontory to celebrate therites of Apollo and Ceres. A colony was sent from Lindos to Telos; others from Cos,Nisyrus and Calydna; from Argos to Carpathus, now the island of Scapanta; fromCnidus to Syme, a town of Asia Minor ; from Megara a migration took place, whichsettled at Astypalea, one of the Cyclades ; and others to Anaphe, Thera, Phalegandros,Blelos, Myndus, Mylasa, Cryassa, Synnada, and Noricum in Phrygia .

The Rhodians founded Gaga?, and Corydalla in Lycia, on the shores of Asia Minor ;Phaselis on the confines of that country; Pampbylia; and Soli in Cilicia . According toThucydides, about 713 years before Christ, Antiphemus led a colony from Hindus , andfounded the town of.Gela in Sicily .