1636 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ENGINEERING. Book II.
Fig. 3057.
6 inches, and the clear width of the nave S3 feet. The entire width, at the basement or levelof the pavement of the crypt, is 79 feet: 26J feet, or is devoted to points of support, and52jj feet, or |, to the side aisles and nave; the area of a severy shows ^ applied to wallsand piers, and § to the void, which proportions accord with the early rather than with thelate examples; the great weight of the vaulting, which is 62 feet high from the pavementof the chapel, requiring additional strength, the proportions of St. George’s Chapel at"Windsor would not have been equal to the necessary resistance.
Our limits will not permit a more extended inquiry into the principles of proportion,the study of which is calculated to produce an important improvement in the noble art,for the practice of which the young architect must prepare himself by careful measure-ment, not only of the ruins of the Acropolis and of the Capitol, but of all that remains ofmediaeval architecture: he must be a pilgrim seeking after truth, not bowing before anyfavourite shrine, but returning with a devotion as enlarged as his subject. The stupendousworks which antiquity has transmitted to us, it is hoped, may excite the attention of thegeneral reader, nor will his interest be diminished by the contemplation of the astonishingdevelopment of modern industry. The writer cannot but feel the importance and varietyof his subject, and, while he is conscious of his own imperfections, he must often accuse thedeficiency of his materials: but the results of his labour, however inadequate to his ownwishes, he finally delivers to the candour of the public.