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A R C H I T third, fupporting buildings of a mixed nature. So that, if domination alone is to be regarded, the Tufcands of the fame order with the Doric, and the Com polite with the Corinthian. The ornaments of thefe three orders ought to be Hiked to the purpofes for which they are intended. Plain and rulhc ornaments would be not a little difcordant with the elegance of the Corinthian order, and fweet and delicate ornaments not lefs with the ftrength of the Doric. With refpedt to buildings of every kind, one rule, ditfhted by utility, is, that they be firm and liable. An-
E C T U R E. other, dictated by beauty, is, that they alfo appear fo to the eye ; for every thing that appears tottering, and in hazard of tumbling down, produceth in the fpedtator the painful emotion of fear, inftead of the pleafing emotion of beauty; and accordingly it fhould be the great care of the artift, that every part of his edifice appear to be well fupported. Some have introduced a kind of conceit in architedlure, by giving parts of buildings the appearance of falling; of this kind is the church of St Sophia in Conftantinople; the romd towers in the uppermoft ftories of Gothic buildings is in the fame falfe tafte.
S E C T. II. OF ARCHITECTURE AS A MECHANICAL ART. The Athenians, about the fame time, fent thirteen coOf the Origin o/’Buildings. lonies into Alia, under the cqmmand of Ion, fon of Xu"OUixdings, in the firft ages of fociety, behoved to be thus and Creufa. This Ion conquered all Caria, foundextremely rude. The firft huts were probably of a ed many cities, and called the country Ionia. The firlt conic figure, being the moft fimple, and belt adapted to temple he built was after the Doric manner. But afterthe materials that could be obtained in fuch an unculti- wards he built a temple to Diana of a more delicate ftrucvated ftate of fociety. Thefe huts were formed of ture, and formed upon the proportions of a female bobranches of trees, covered with reeds, leaves, and clay. dy, as the Doric had been on thofe of a robuft man. But, finding the conic figure inconvenient, on account The capital was adorned with volutes, to reprefent the of its inclined fides, they changed it into a cubical one, curls of a woman’s hair; and flutingswere cut on the Ihaft in -the following manner: They fixed in the ground fe- of the column, in imitation of the folds of her garment. veral upright trees to form the lides, filling the intervals This order got the name of Ionic, in honour of the lonibetween them with branches clofely interwoven, and co- ans who invented it. vered with clay. The lides being thus compleated, four The third fort of columns, called Corinthian, are faid large beams were placed on the upright trunks, which, to owe their origin to the following accident:—A young being well joined at the angles, kept the fides firm ; and girl of Corinth having died, her nurfe placed on her likewife ferved to fupport the roof, which was compofed tomb a balket, containing certain trinkets, in which fhe of many joifts, covered with reeds, leaves, and clay. delighted wh£n alive, and covered it with a tyle to preAs men improved in the art of building, new methods vent the rain from fpoiling them. The balket happened of rendering their huts lafting and handfome were gra- to be placed on a root of acanthus, which pufhing out dually invented. Thfy took off the bark and other un- its leaves in the fpring, covered the fides of the balket; evennefies from the trunks of the trees that formed the fome of the longeft of which, being obftrudted by the lides, and raifed them above the dirt on ftones. The corners of the tyle, were forced downwards, and curled fpaces between the ends of the joifts were clofed with in the manner of volutes. Calimachus the fculptor, pafclay, and the ends of them were covered with thin boards, fing near the tomb, was fo pleafed with the beautiful apcut in the form of triglyphs, «Sr<r. pearance of the acanthus growing in this manner, that he From this fimple conftr.u&ion the different orders of imitated it in the columns which he afterwards made at architedhire took their rife. When buildings of wood Corinth. were laid afide, they imitated, in their edifices of ftone, Villalpandus treats this ftory of Calimachus as a favhe form which neceffity had introduced into the primi- ble, and maintains that the Corinthian capital took its tive huts: Hence the upright trees gave rife to the origin from an order in Solomon’s temple; and it muft columns ; and the beams, joifts, rafters, and ftrata of be acknowledged, that fome defcriptions in the Bible materials that formed the covering, fuggefted architraves, favour this opinion. Befides thefe three orders, faid to be invented by the frizes, triglyphs, and cornices. At what time, or by whom, the Grecian orders were Greeks, two other, viz. the Tufcanand Compofite, are invented, is not certainly known. But the following is thought to have been invented by the Romans. The Tufcan firft appeared in Tufcany, before the Romans had the account which Vitruvius gives of them. Dprus, king of Achaia, and fon of Helenes and Op- any intercourfe with the Greeks. The Compofite is a tica, built a temple to Juno in the ancient city of Argos, mixture of the Ionic' and Corinthian. Thefe five manwhich happened to be in the manner now called Doric, ners of building, invented by the ancients, are called from the name of the inventor. This manner was after- Orders, on account d£ the regularity and beauty of wards imitated in many other temples in the feveral cities their forms. Of of Achaia.
