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RUDIMENTS OF

erecting buildings to the honour of theirtutelar deities, or when they had vowedworship and homage to any particular one;I say, when we consider what variety ofopportunities offered to shew honour, toexhibit splendour, and to display libera-lity, we need not wonder at the greatnumber of sacred edifices still remaining:indeed they are so many, and of such mag-nificence, as chiefly to absorb the travel-ler’s attention, the remains of other publicstructures being but few. I have there-fore given no more on public edifices, thanwhat Vitruvius has written of sacred ones,and the rules given by him for the dispo-sition of columns.

OF TEMPLES.

The following account of their origin andprogress will, I think, be considered as ra-tional; for doubtless they had their statesof progression, as well as every other hu-man invention.

There is implanted in the mind of manso strong an idea of a superior power,