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 •A* 
 
 
AN 
 
 INQUIRY 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 IN 
 
 GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE; 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN HISTORICAL VIEW 
 
 OF 
 
 THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ART IN 
 GREECE. 
 
 BY GEORGE, EARL OF ABERDEEN, K. T. &c. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. 
 
 1822. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 rniNTED BY THOMAS DAVISON. \VHITEKRIARS. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The substance of the following 
 pages was prefixed, as an Introduc- 
 tion, to Wilkins's translation of Vi- 
 truvius, published in Januarj^, 1812. 
 The author has been frequently re- 
 quested to print this inquiry in a 
 more portable and commodious 
 form ; but in venturing to comply 
 with the request, it is not without 
 feeling diffident of its claim to fur- 
 ther attention. Various additions 
 and corrections have, however, been 
 made, in the hope of rendering the 
 whole less imperfect. 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2010 witii funding from 
 
 Researcii Library, Tine Getty Researcii Institute 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/inquiryintoprincOOaber 
 
AN INQUIRY, 
 
 &c. 
 
 All nations, in the most advanced state 
 of civilization, have been unanimous in 
 their admiration of Grecian architecture; 
 and indeed, such admiration appears to 
 have been generally considered as in- 
 separable from the existence of real taste 
 and knowledge in the art. An endea- 
 vour, therefore, to trace the causes of 
 this unanimity, and to ascertain the prin- 
 ciples on which it is founded, may form 
 the subject of an interesting inquiry ; 
 more especially, as it is in some degree 
 doubtful, whether the sentiment be ex- 
 
 B 
 
'Z THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 cited in us by any qualities or properties 
 peculiar to the style itself, operating pre- 
 viously to the intervention of the judg- 
 ment ; or whether it be not the effect of 
 intellectual association only. By intel- 
 lectual association, I mean the union of 
 such ideas as the imagination has ori- 
 ginally presented to the mind, and of 
 such as the understanding has finally 
 combined, after having compared them 
 with each other. This species of as- 
 sociation is, consequently, never to be 
 confounded with that which may be 
 called sensible association, by which 
 ideas, in childhood always, and often at 
 a more advanced age, are admitted with- 
 out scrutiny, and combined without re- 
 flection. If, then, admiration of Grecian 
 architecture result from intellectual as- 
 sociation, it will be found to exist only 
 among men of knowledge ; and its just 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 3 
 
 proportion will be determined by those 
 whose taste is the most cultivated, and 
 whose science is the most extensive : 
 but if there be some intrinsic charm, 
 some peculiar grace, which is necessarily 
 acknowledged and felt by all mankind ; 
 we then must look for some more general 
 principle, which will accommodate itself 
 to tliis more general feeling. 
 
 It seems impossible that we should con- 
 template any remains of Grecian taste 
 and science, of whatever description they 
 may be, without, at the same time, ad- 
 verting to other monuments of other 
 arts, and connecting them in the mind 
 with those which are immediately before 
 us. In vain would we believe that we 
 admire them as if they stood insulated 
 and alone, while association is soften- 
 ing every defect, and enhancing every 
 beauty, — while memory is retracing the 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 most affecting scenes, — or while fancy is 
 grouping the most interesting objects. 
 We can scarcely deny, then, that the 
 pleasure which is derived from surveying 
 the ancient models of Grecian archi- 
 tecture is incalculably heightened by 
 ideas connected with learning, with 
 science, and with art j accompanied, as 
 they ever must be, by all the nameless 
 charms which imagination combines with 
 the history of the Greeks, and which it 
 throws over all their productions. It is 
 probable, nevertheless, that their build- 
 ings possess certain qualities which affect 
 us independently of all these associations, 
 and which, even without them, fail not 
 to produce in us sentiments of admira- 
 tion, and feelings of delight. 
 
 Before I proceed, however, to inquire 
 into the causes of this attraction, with a 
 view more particularly to trace the real 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 5 
 
 sources of beauty in architecture, it may 
 be convenient here to mention the ex- 
 istence of other striking and remarkable 
 quahties partaking of the character of 
 subUmity, which are calculated to make 
 the strongest impressions on the minds 
 of all men ; and which are uncon- 
 nected, not only with the associations 
 referred to, but with all those attri- 
 butes which have been supposed to 
 constitute architectural beauty. Such 
 impressions are not the result of any 
 assignable peculiarities of form, or dis- 
 position of parts, but will be found to 
 arise from ideas, often perhaps vague 
 and indistinct, which these qualities sug- 
 gest of the superior power and energy 
 requisite for their production. Indeed, 
 as I think in all cases of the moral sub- 
 lime, it may be justly stated that what- 
 ever tends to create ideas of superior 
 energy and force, producing thereby an 
 
O THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 elevation and expansion of mind, is its 
 real and efficient cause ; I am persuaded, 
 also, tliat in visible objects, all such qua- 
 lities as are capable of exciting similar 
 sensations must be considered as the only 
 true source of sublimity. Of these qua- 
 lities in monuments of architecture, mag- 
 nitude is the principal, and perhaps single 
 one, which is indispensable : but its effect 
 may be much increased by the height 
 of the building, and by the solidity of 
 the materials which compose its mass. 
 Height, it may be said, is only extension 
 in a particular direction ; but it pro- 
 duces increased sublimity in architecture, 
 because it most forcibly suggests ideas of 
 great effort, and of great power, as well 
 as of difficulty overcome. The solidity of 
 the materials also, confirms and strength- 
 ens the first impressions of admiration 
 suggested by magnitude and height; 
 and, in addition to the sense of original 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 7 
 
 difficulty overcome, gives an appearance 
 of eternal stability to the building. 
 Hence, we cannot fail to be struck with 
 the grandeur of the Egyptian pyramids, 
 from their solidity and their vast mag- 
 nitude ; although the pyramidal form is 
 not in itself peculiarly impressive, as is 
 proved by the insignificant appearance 
 of that of Caius Cestius at Rome, and of 
 all others of small dimensions. Thus, 
 too, the great Tartarian wall, from its 
 extent, must unquestionably affect the 
 beholder in the same manner ; yet it is 
 obvious that the forms and proportions 
 of any part of it which can easily be 
 comprehended by the eye, are not such 
 as are calculated to excite even a con- 
 siderable degree of admiration. But, 
 when to the actual knowledge of its pro- 
 digious extent, we associate the ideas of 
 the energy, the power, and the perse- 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 verance necessary for the execution of 
 this extraordinary work, the effect can- 
 not be doubtful. 
 
 It is not, Iiowever, only in uniform and 
 simple structures, that the qualities which 
 
 1 have mentioned are productive of the 
 sublime in architecture. A great pro. 
 fusion of ornament is far from being 
 incompatible with a similar result. A 
 Gothic cathedral, with its lofty and slen- 
 der proportions, and endless variety of 
 parts, — or a Grecian edifice with all its 
 decorated regularity and order, will pro- 
 duce similar sensations of wonder and 
 admiration. Thus, although no objects 
 can differ more both in their general 
 character and in their details than the 
 great pyramid, York minster, and St. 
 Peter's church, yet, as each possesses the 
 
 efficient cause of grandeur, each excites 
 those feelings which partake of sublimity. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 9 
 
 Mr. Burke observes, that uniformity 
 and succession of parts, as the great 
 causes of the artificial infinite, tend 
 mainly in architecture to produce sub- 
 limity ; and thinks, that the effect of a 
 colonnade may be chosen with propriety 
 to exemplify the truth of his position *. 
 Doubtless the portico at Palmyra, al- 
 though greatly defective in style and 
 execution, but which was two thousand 
 feet in circuit ; or the peristyle of the 
 great temple at Selinus, which was sixty 
 feet in height, must have been eminently 
 grand and impressive ; but it is not true, 
 that the mere collocation of parts, with- 
 out any reference to the magnitude of 
 their dimensions, can ever prove a source 
 of the sublime ; and this, indeed, is ad- 
 mitted by Mr. Burke himself. In these 
 instances, as in all others, its true origin 
 * Subl. und Beuut. Pt. ii. Sect. 9. 
 
10 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 will be found in that quality which most 
 powerfully excites ideas of the superior 
 force and energy necessary for the ac- 
 complishment of the work. The truth is, 
 however, that perhaps we can scarcely, 
 with strict propriety, speak of the sub- 
 lime in architecture ; and in fact it is 
 observable, that the authors who make 
 use of this language, as if conscious 
 that somewhat more was implied by the 
 expression than could be perfectly justi- 
 fied, appear on all occasions disposed in- 
 voluntarily to substitute the terms of 
 grand, majestic, or imposing. In an art, 
 the objects of which depend so much on 
 scientific calculation, and on the skilful 
 application of mechanic power, it may 
 be difficult in the result to excite those 
 sensations which are the most intimately 
 connected with real sublimity. If, in- 
 deed, the observation of an eloquent 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 11 
 
 writer be just, that a fine monument of 
 architecture is the only work of art which 
 produces in the beholder an effect similar 
 to the wonders of nature*; it is possible 
 that this art, which, unlike painting and 
 sculpture, is not merely imitative, may 
 sometimes be characterised by the same 
 species of original grandeur which di- 
 stinguishes the immediate works of the 
 creation ; and may inspire sensations of 
 the sublime, in some degree analogous 
 to those which are produced by natural 
 objects. 
 
 It has already been observed, that the 
 architecture of the Greeks, independently 
 of the numerous associations connected 
 with the memory of its authors, may pro- 
 bably possess a certain character which 
 is calculated to produce in us a sense of 
 pleasure and admiration, and which may 
 * Madame de Stael^, Corinne, t. i. p. 162. 
 
12 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 therefore be supposed to constitutebeauty . 
 In speculating, however, on the nature of 
 beauty, too much appears to have been 
 attempted. Dissatisfied with looking 
 merely to peculiar results arising from 
 certain combinations of qualities, or 
 fatigued, perhaps, by the minuteness of 
 details, we have gone on abstracting, in 
 the hope of discovering some general 
 principles, to which every species of it 
 may be referred, and some comprehen- 
 sive rules, according to which every ex- 
 ample of it may be classed ; although, in 
 reality, we are only generalizing effects, 
 while we fancy that we are investigating 
 efficient causes ; and although it is highly 
 probable that these hidden properties 
 will continue to elude the test of the 
 strictest analysis. It was this desire of 
 generalizing which led Mr. Burke, and 
 those who have followed him, to adopt 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 13 
 
 notions contrary to the plainest dictates 
 of reason and philosophy. It is not ne- 
 cessary at present to enter into a discus- 
 sion of the question how far the beauty 
 we perceive may be said to exist in the 
 mind of the beholder, and not in the ob- 
 ject itself: but, admitting that certain 
 definite properties of objects are calcu- 
 lated to excite corresponding sensations 
 in the mind, it must still be evident, that 
 to the art now under consideration the 
 principles laid down by this great man 
 either are not applicable at all, or they 
 are so in a very slight degree ; for it is 
 not to their truth and accuracy in a li- 
 mited sense, but to their universal and 
 exclusive adoption, that we ought to ob- 
 ject. According to the theory of Mr. 
 Burke*, the essential requisites for the 
 formation of the beautiful are, ^^Jirst, to 
 * Subl. and Beaut. Pt. iii. Sect. 18. 
 
14 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 " be comparatively small ; secondly , to be 
 " smooth ; thirdly^ to have a variety in 
 " the direction of the parts; hwi, fourtJilij, 
 " to have those parts not angular, but 
 *' melted, as it were, into each other ; 
 ^^Jifthly^ to be of a delicate frame, with- 
 " out any remarkable appearance of 
 " strength ; sixthly, to have its colours 
 " clear and bright, but not very strong 
 " and glaring ; seventhly, or if it should 
 " have any glaring colour, to have it di- 
 " versified with others." Now it is im- 
 possible to deny that all or most of these 
 characteristics are possessed by a great 
 variety of objects which every man of re- 
 fined and cultivated taste must concur in 
 pronouncing to be beautiful. Yet the 
 enumeration is, after all, somewhat ar- 
 bitrary, and perhaps it would not be dif- 
 ficult to vary or enlarge it by the addition 
 of other peculiarities which might be sup- 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 15 
 
 ported with equal plausibility. But our 
 attention at present is directed to the 
 statement, so far only as it may be consi- 
 dered applicable to architecture ; and I 
 think a very little reflection will suf- 
 fice to show tliat these qualities, so far 
 from being essential to architectural 
 beauty, are really in some measure of an 
 opposite description. Let us take as an 
 example, the most beautiful perhaps of 
 the buildings of antiquity, raised and 
 adorned by the most celebrated artists, 
 and the whole finished under the inspec- 
 tion of the most accomplished statesman 
 of Greece, — the temple of the Parthenon, 
 at Athens. We shall find, that although 
 it may be less than some few structures 
 of the same description, it is impossible 
 that it should ever, with propriety, be 
 characterised as comparatively small, — 
 that it possesses no delicacy of frame, 
 
l6 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 but tluit the appearance of strength is 
 such as becomes the style in which it 
 is built, and plainly denotes the perma- 
 nence of its duration, — that the dii'ection 
 of the parts is necessarily uniform, and 
 the greater proportion of these sharp 
 and angular, — that the colour, although 
 now somewhat softened by the effects of 
 time and weather, was formerly the most 
 bright and glaring which it is possible to 
 imagine, viz. the dazzling whiteness of 
 the marble of Pentelicus, no otherwise 
 diversified than by the lights and sha- 
 dows produced by the various masses 
 which composed the whole edifice. 
 
 Smoothness in this as in other build- 
 ings is indeed pleasing, but from a cause 
 different from that which is assigned by 
 Mr. Burke in his Essay on the Sublime 
 and Beautiful ; for the pleasure we re- 
 ceive in surveying the polished exterior 
 
rx GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 17 
 
 of a building arises principally from the 
 ideas which it gives us of the care and 
 skill with w'hich the work has been 
 finished. The smoothness which is observ- 
 able in any finely-laboured structure may 
 certainly impart an agreeable sensation ; 
 but it is different from that which is ex- 
 perienced in looking at the blue expanse 
 of the heavens softly laid on the smooth 
 surface of a lake : — It is yet more dif- 
 ferent from that which is felt when the 
 eye regards the smooth and delicate 
 skin of a beautiful female. When we 
 admire smoothness in a building, we ad- 
 mire it as an effect, which we naturally 
 associate w^th the causes that have 
 produced it. In this instance, the se- 
 condary quality, considered separately 
 and in itself, produces no sentiment of 
 pleasure; it is agreeable, only as it is 
 the result of skill and art. This is evi- 
 
 c 
 
18 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 dent from our equal admiration of those 
 parts of arcliitecturc which are covered 
 with a profusion of minute and elaborate 
 ornament, the general effect of which is 
 an appearance only of roughness ; and 
 whose forms, when viewed in detail, be- 
 ing sharp and angular, cannot impart an 
 agreeable sensation by any organic affec- 
 tion of the eye itself. 
 
 It must be evident, I think, that the 
 properties and qualities considered by 
 Mr. Burke as essential to every species 
 of beauty, have been principally, if not 
 entirely, collected from the female form ; 
 and the truth is, that this system offers 
 precisely the same solution of the pro- 
 blem, as that which is proposed by the 
 Sophist and refuted by Socrates * j with 
 this difference only, that the distinguish- 
 ing characteristics of the object in ques- 
 
 * Plat. Hipp, major, ed Serraii, t. iii. p. 287- 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 19 
 
 tion are indicated, instead of the object 
 itself. But although these qualities are 
 connected in the female form, with all 
 that is most lovely, yet the real source of 
 their attraction even here, appears to 
 have been in a great measure over- 
 looked ; for this, I apprehend, does not 
 so much consist in the particular shape, 
 colour, or surface of the parts themselves, 
 as in the sensual affections and sympa- 
 thies implanted in our nature. Had it, 
 however, been practicable, by classing 
 the charms of the most beautiful work 
 of the creation, to invest in these charms 
 every other object, the choice would 
 have been judicious ; we might even 
 have desired the success of such an enter- 
 prise ; and yet, according to the present 
 order of things, it would seem a little 
 whimsical to maintain, that feminine 
 graces, feminine delicacy, and feminine 
 
 c 2 
 
j20 the principles of beauty 
 
 proportions, ouglit to constitute beauty 
 in a tree or in a house. The rules which 
 Mr. Burke has hiid down may be found 
 to be just when apphed to the female 
 form, but to extend them to every form 
 in nature seems little less unreasonable 
 than if we were to assert, that every 
 species of composition ought to be 
 framed according to the decrees which 
 the critics have promulgated for the 
 perfection of the drama, — decrees, which 
 are in themselves sufficiently tyrannical, 
 and which, unlike the rules of Mr. Burke, 
 are formed from the analysis of a most 
 imperfect model. Indeed, my friend 
 Mr. Price, who is the zealous advocate 
 of these principles, and who, in placing 
 them in many new and striking points 
 of view, has enforced and illustrated 
 them with the utmost ingenuity ; has 
 felt himself, nevertheless, under the ne- 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 21 
 
 cessity of admitting that the theory is 
 not so fully applicable to works of archi- 
 tecture as to other objects ; but must be 
 received with certain exceptions and mo- 
 difications, which arise from the nature 
 of the art itself*. This admission, al- 
 though to be expected from the candour 
 of my friend, I think may be considered 
 as an additional proof of the inadequacy 
 of Mr. Burke's system : for his rules are 
 laid down without any restriction, and 
 are stated to be capable of universal ap- 
 plication. Mr. Burke himself has not 
 thought it necessary to make these limit- 
 ations with respect to architecture ; and 
 he has, in fact, very frequently illustrated 
 his argument by a reference to this art. 
 But even if they had been so limited by 
 him, it could scarcely have contributed 
 to raise our notions of the perfection of 
 
 * Essay on Ardiit. p. 234. 
 
22 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 a system, in which, professing to give a 
 philosophical explanation of the general 
 principles, and to establish a standard, of 
 beauty, it had been found indispensable 
 materially to restrict these principles in 
 their application to an art, the monu- 
 ments of which, in their external appear- 
 ance at least, must have been constructed 
 mainly with a view to this very quality. 
 Mr. Price, however, contends that Mr. 
 Burke's principles, due allowance being 
 made for the peculiar nature of the art, 
 are still applicable to works of archi- 
 tecture ; and he has judiciously chosen 
 the circular temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli 
 as an example, where even Mr. Burke's 
 doctrine of flowing lines, and his un- 
 qualified proscription of angles, are to a 
 certain degree supported by the effect of 
 the building *. I have no wish to deny 
 * Essay ou Archit. p. 23S, and note. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 23 
 
 the general beauty of this temple, or the 
 charm of its appearance, especially in the 
 situation in which it is placed ; whatever 
 may be the corrupt taste of some of its 
 ornamental details. It may be observed, 
 however, that circular temples appear 
 always to have been rare, more particu- 
 larly among the Greeks, which, if they 
 really possessed the most essential pro- 
 perties of beauty, must be considered as 
 extraordinary neglect in a people by whom 
 it was so well understood. I will only 
 state that I have already referred to a 
 building, avowedly the most beautiful 
 of all antiquity, and have shown that 
 scarcely in a single particular does it ac- 
 cord with the supposed standard. The 
 examples, then, of the Parthenon and of 
 the temple of the Sibyl afford us an ad- 
 ditional proof of the vagueness and un- 
 certainty of these rules, of which, indeed. 
 
24 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 Mr. Burke himself seems to have been 
 in some degree aware ; for he has de- 
 scribed a certain class of buildings, which, 
 as according to his theory, he thinks they 
 cannot justly claim the appellation either 
 of grand or of beautiful, he proposes to 
 call * the fine or specious *.' These terms 
 may, perhaps, be convenient and useful 
 in colloquial language ; but as employed 
 by this distinguished person, are neither 
 accurate nor philosophical. The truth 
 is, that Mr. Burke has attempted more 
 than it was possible for him to perform. 
 Had he been contented with indicating 
 the peculiar properties which characterise 
 a vast variety of beautiful objects, we 
 could not have withheld our assent from 
 the justness and accuracy of his pro- 
 positions ; while our admiration was ex- 
 cited by the manner in which they were 
 
 * Subl. and Beaut. Pt. iii. Sect. 23. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 25 
 
 enforced. But the more the subject is 
 investigated, the more fully satisfied we 
 shall be, that no selection of secondary 
 causes will ever be found capable of com- 
 prising the whole range of beauty. 
 
 Not satisfied with having triumphantly 
 refuted the notions of those theorists who 
 maintained that fitness and proportion 
 are the sole causes of beauty, Mr. Burke 
 has gone so far as to deny that these 
 qualities are in any way necessary to its 
 existence. This opinion, as far as it re- 
 gards architecture, is erroneous : — for, 
 although there undeniably exists a real 
 distinction between the ideas of beauty, 
 and of fitness to an end, yet in a scientific 
 art, of which utility is also a principal ob- 
 ject, the full perception of excellence re- 
 quires some effort of the understanding, 
 and depends, in great measure, on our 
 finding that the means employed are 
 
26 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 justly calculated for the attainment of 
 what we know to have been the ends 
 proposed : here, therefore, proportion 
 and fitness are indispensable to the 
 sensation of beauty. Its perfection in 
 architecture, therefore, may perhaps be 
 said to arise from the symmetrical pro- 
 portion of the whole building, and from 
 the fitness and propriety of the orna- 
 mental parts. This will sufficiently ac- 
 cord with the definition of the beautiful 
 as given by Aristotle, which consists, 
 according to him, in magnitude and 
 order : the first, being a term purely 
 relative, is made to comprise the whole 
 extent of that scale which the eye is able 
 to embrace at one view *. 
 
 The truth is, however, that general rules 
 for beauty in this, or in any other practical 
 
 * rh ya,^ xaXov iv f/^iyahi xdi rx^n Is'l. 
 
 Poet. P. ii. vS. 4. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 27 
 
 art, cannot be fixed from abstract conclu- 
 sions ; but must be deduced from expe- 
 rience, and from the continued observa- 
 tion of those quaHties which have been 
 found universally to please ; this being, 
 after all, the only test respecting which all 
 are agreed. It was by an adherence to 
 this principle that the Greeks seem to 
 have regulated their practice. Hence, the 
 remarkable uniformity of all their build- 
 ings, in which, indeed, the variations 
 are so slight, as scarcely, on a first 
 view, to satisfy the natural desire of 
 novelty, or justly to merit the praise 
 of invention. A quadrilateral form, 
 adorned with exterior columns, the roof 
 comparatively low, and composed for 
 the most part of unbroken lines, with 
 the frieze and pediment enriched by 
 the application of sculpture in different 
 degrees of magnificence and profusion. 
 
28 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 constituted almost invariably the figure 
 of their most splendid edifices. But, 
 altiiough generally similar in plan, di- 
 stinct varieties are observable in Grecian 
 structures ; each peculiar and consistent 
 in all its respective parts. The cha- 
 racter of massive and imposing grandeur 
 in the Doric style, — of adorned yet sim- 
 ple majesty in the Ionic, — and of festive 
 sumptuousness in the Corinthian, is pre- 
 served throughout the minutest details 
 of these orders. If any one should deny 
 the paramount influence of association, 
 or that a sense of fitness and propriety 
 in architecture is a source of pleasure, 
 he has only to bring together some of 
 the more prominent parts of these dif- 
 ferent modes of building, in order to be 
 convinced of the incongruity that would 
 result from their union. This incon- 
 gruity, although invariably revolting to 
 
IN GRECIAN AUCHITECTURE. 29 
 
 the eye of taste, is, in fact, perhaps only 
 apparent ; for there is nothing in the 
 nature of the members themselves which, 
 when joined, should render them really 
 unfit for the purposes of strength and 
 utility ; but from the long observation 
 of a contrary practice, recommended by 
 so many powerful associations, we have 
 become impressed with this notion, which 
 it is now impossible to eradicate. Hav- 
 ing constantly witnessed the employment 
 of columns, and other ornaments, under 
 similar circumstances of apparent fitness, 
 we are shocked at any material deviation 
 from established usage. And this forced 
 union of different members, which have 
 been long appropriated to the use of 
 their respective orders, would appear 
 almost as preposterous in our eyes, as 
 the whimsical fancy of Hogarth, who, in 
 inventing an order of architecture, com- 
 
30 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 posed the capitals of tlie columns by a 
 grotesque assemblage of full-bottomed 
 wigs and cocked hats. It may be ob- 
 served in general, that few of those nu- 
 merous changes of taste which an in- 
 satiable desire of novelty, or the caprice 
 of fashion, may have sanctioned for a 
 time, have been ultimately successful ; 
 for these ephemeral productions, how- 
 ever warmly supported, have been found 
 successively to vanish before the steady 
 and permanent attractions of Grecian 
 beauty ; and we shall probably feel dis- 
 posed to admit that the ornamental de- 
 tails of the standard models of antiquity, 
 combined and modified by discretion and 
 judgment, appear to offer a sufficient 
 variety for the exercise of invention and 
 genius in this province of the art. 
 
 Architectural ornament, if not really 
 useful, ought, in its principal parts, to 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 31 
 
 possess the semblance of utility ; there 
 should be a sufficient cause for its in- 
 troduction, at least in appearance, al- 
 though, perhaps, in truth none may 
 exist ; for decoration, which is incom- 
 patible with this essential quality of the 
 art, can never be admissible. Columns 
 undoubtedly form the chief feature in 
 the ornamental parts of architecture ; 
 and perhaps the great source of their 
 attraction may be found in the apparent 
 fitness of their employment ; for nothing 
 can more fully accord with that prin- 
 ciple, derived from the practice of the 
 Greeks, which teaches us that whatever 
 is useful in architecture, should be ren- 
 dered pleasing ; and that what is beau- 
 tiful should appear also to be necessary. 
 Columns, however, are likewise eminently 
 calculated, by the power of lights and 
 shadows, to produce a species of intricacy. 
 
32 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 and aconcealment ofparts, which, although 
 really indistinct, the imagination can with 
 certainty fill up and supply to itself; and 
 the variety of surface necessary for this 
 effect, with the preservation, at the same 
 time, of the general harmony and pro- 
 portions of the edifice, must always be 
 considered as a primary object of the 
 architect. It is the want of this sense of 
 fitness and utility which cannot fail to 
 create an unpleasant sensation in behold- 
 ing that species of building which is 
 commonly called a skreen, or a row of 
 columns supporting nothing but their 
 own entablature ; because, however beau- 
 tifully the parts may be executed, the 
 mind remains ignorant of the destination, 
 and dissatisfied with the propriety of the 
 whole ; which indeed can scarcely sug- 
 gest any other idea than that of a ruin, 
 or of some unfinished work. Hence 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 33 
 
 also, twisted columns and broken pedi- 
 ments, being so manifestly unsuitable to 
 the purposes for which they were ori- 
 ginally intended, become monstrous and 
 unnatural. 
 
 Decoration, which is at once disco- 
 vered to originate in an ostentatious 
 desire of splendour, but which produces 
 the effect only of tawdry and misplaced 
 finery, must always be offensive. With- 
 out attempting to enumerate the various 
 species of vicious decoration, we may 
 instance, as belonging to this description, 
 the recesses, or rather the holes which we 
 sometimes find laboriously constructed 
 in walls, for no other purpose than that 
 of containing columns ; as well as the 
 unmeaning projections which it is not 
 uncommon to see, formed by the applica- 
 tion of a couple of columns, with their 
 entablature, at intervals along the plain 
 
 D 
 
84 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 surface of a building by way of enrich- 
 ment. I will only add here, that those 
 ^slices of pilasters y* which, whether * laced 
 mth rustic n'ork* or not, are so frequent 
 in modern practice, are almost universally 
 objectionable : they are not only poor 
 and insignificant in themselves as orna- 
 mental members of architecture, but are 
 destructive of that simplicity and breadth 
 of surface, — of that repose in which the 
 eye delights, and which are so essential 
 in works of magnitude and importance. 
 The perfection of ornament, as taught 
 by those examples which educated men 
 have in all ages agreed to admire, and 
 by which criterion alone it is to be esti- 
 mated, is natural and consistent : it is 
 fixed in that happy medium which alike 
 avoids the poverty that is produced by 
 the extreme of simplicity, or baldness ; 
 and the confusion that arises from re- 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 35 
 
 dundancy and caprice. If we seek for 
 the manifestation of pure taste in the 
 monuments that surround us, our search 
 will but too often prove fruitless. We 
 must turn our eyes towards those re- 
 gions, 
 
 Where, on the Egean shore, a city stands. 
 Built nobly ! 
 
 Here, — it has been little understood, for 
 it has been rarely felt ; its country is 
 Greece, — its throne, the acropolis of 
 Athens. 
 
 By a person writing on the subject of 
 architecture, the name of Athens can 
 scarcely be pronounced without emotion j 
 and in the mind of one who has had the 
 STOod fortune to examine at leisure its 
 glorious remains, impressions are re- 
 vived, which time and distance can never 
 obliterate. It is difficult to resist the 
 
fMi THE PRINCIPLKS OF BEAUTY 
 
 desire of fondly dwelling on the de- 
 scription of monuments, to the beauty 
 of which, although they have been long 
 well known, and accurately described, 
 we feel that no language can do full 
 justice. But, as it is not the purpose of 
 this Inquiry to give those practical or 
 detailed instructions in the art, which 
 may be so much better obtained from 
 other sources ; I will only observe in this 
 place, what it is of consequence to keep 
 in view, because no descriptions or re- 
 presentations, however accurate, can give 
 adequate notions of the effect of the ori- 
 ginals, that, notwithstanding the lapse of 
 ages, the injuries of barbarism, and of 
 fanatical violence, Athens still presents 
 to the student the most faultless models 
 of ornamental architecture ; and is still, 
 therefore, the best school for the acquisi- 
 tion of the highest attributes of his art. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 37 
 
 It would appear, however, that this 
 perfection of architectural beauty which 
 rendered Athens the pride and ornament 
 of all Greece, was in great measure con- 
 fined to the various edifices erected for 
 public purposes, and that individuals were 
 forbidden by some acl<nowledged prin- 
 ciple, or prescriptive law, from making 
 any ostentatious display of this kind; 
 probably from an apprehension that it 
 might prove incompatible w^ith the ap- 
 parent equality of the citizens of a de- 
 mocratic state. For Demosthenes thought 
 it was a reasonable cause of accusation 
 against Midias, that he had built a house 
 at Eleusis, by which all the others in the 
 place were thrown into the shade *. He 
 mentions too, on another occasion, that 
 in the best times of Athens, while the 
 public buildings and the temples were 
 
 * Demosth. in Mid. p. 628, ed Wolfii. 
 
38 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 rendered so magnificent and so perfect 
 as to leave nothing for posterity to add, 
 the private dwellings were invariably 
 simple and modest ; and he assures us 
 that the policy of the state was so strictly 
 observed in this respect, that even the 
 residences of Aristides and Miltiades, 
 and of the other illustrious citizens of 
 that age, could not be distinguished from 
 the houses of their neighbours*. He 
 laments also, that in his owi} time, private 
 individuals built houses which rivalled 
 the splendour of the public edifices ; and 
 that this magnificence was exhibited the 
 more frequently, in proportion to the 
 decay of the real power and prosperity 
 of the republic. In like manner, too, 
 the city habitations of tlie Romans, during 
 the earlier periods of their history, rarely 
 
 * Demosth. Olynth. iii. p. 38, .19. 
 
 na) T<p6Spx sv tv rrjc TfjXihlxc ^^st (/.evoyhg. x. t. X. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 39 
 
 boasted of exterior architectural deco- 
 ration. Julius Caesar *, in the height of 
 his power, obtained a decree of the 
 senate, by which his house was adorned 
 like the front of a temple, and received 
 a fastigium or pediment ; a species of 
 distinction which had previously been 
 reserved for the deities, but which soon 
 became the customary mark of imperial 
 dominion. In all common cases, how- 
 ever, such a display appears to have been 
 prohibited ; probably from the same 
 causes of jealousy which operated at 
 Athens. 
 
 It has been observed, in a work re- 
 plete with learning, ingenuity, and good 
 sense, that as the ancient buildings re- 
 maining to our time are almost exclu- 
 sively of a religious description, and 
 which, having been situated in streets 
 
 * Cic. Philipp. ii. 1,']. 
 
40 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 and squares, possess all the regularity of 
 form desirable in city architecture ; and, 
 consequently, that the effect intended to 
 be produced is such only as may be com- 
 patible with their circumscribed and con- 
 tracted position — it therefore becomes 
 doubtful, how far we can with propriety 
 adopt them as our guides in the embellish- 
 ment of rural scenery *. In all this there 
 appears to be some mistake ; for even in 
 towns, the temples were not only con- 
 spicuously placed on the most lofty and 
 commanding eminences ; and in Greek 
 towns it is well known these are ge- 
 nerally to be found ; but many of the 
 most beautiful were entirely removed 
 from the habitations of men. The tem- 
 ple of Minerva to be seen on the pro- 
 montory of Sunium, that of Jupiter on 
 mount Panhellenius in ^gina, and of 
 
 * Knight, Aiialyt. Inquir. Pt. ii. ch. 2. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 41 
 
 Apollo on mount Cotylus in Arcadia, 
 built by the most celebrated architect of 
 Greece, and still standing in the depth 
 of the same forest, and amidst the de- 
 scendants of those oaks by which it was 
 anciently surrounded, are a few among 
 the numerous examples sufficient to at- 
 test the prevalence of the practice in the 
 best ages of the art. 
 
 It has likewise been remarked*, that 
 the villas and country houses of the an- 
 cients were quite irregular in appearance, 
 and adapted to local circumstances ; and, 
 therefore, had they still existed, would 
 have furnished more just notions for the 
 construction of our own mansions. This 
 too, as far as we can learn, is erroneous. 
 The enormous extent of the villa of the 
 emperor Hadrian, as well as of those of 
 other princes, must, undoubtedly, have 
 
 * Kniglit, Anal. Incj. Pt. ii. Sect. .38. 
 
42 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 comprised every variety in form and 
 situation ; bearing, in fact, more resem- 
 blance to cities than to individual dwell- 
 ings : but there is no reason to imagine 
 that the generality of their country le- 
 sidences were not in their exterior per- 
 fectly simple and regular. On the con- 
 trary, it is evident, from the minute 
 descriptions of Vitruvius, that they con- 
 sisted of bare walls, without any archi- 
 tectural ornament, every thing of this 
 kind being lavished on the interior 
 fronts which looked towards the enclosed 
 courts*. The villa of Pliny, which ap- 
 pears to have been of considerable ex- 
 tent and magnificence, and which is de- 
 scribed with all the detail naturally to 
 be expected from the partiality of a pro- 
 prietor, presents none of this irregularity ; 
 or if, by any ingenuity of interpretation, 
 
 * Vitruv. lib. vi. c. ,'), 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 43 
 
 sometliing of the kind may be conjec- 
 tured to have existed, it must have been 
 purely accidental, and only produced in 
 consequence of the necessary arrange- 
 ment of the interior apartments, without 
 the least reference to any general or pre- 
 conceived design *. These buildings, 
 therefore, cannot reasonably be sup- 
 posed competent to afford us any cor- 
 rect views of picturesque effect in their 
 composition with natural scenery ; and 
 the fact is, that the ancients never pos- 
 sessed any knowledge, or just perception 
 of those qualities of external objects 
 which are called picturesque : at least, 
 in the Greek writers, there are no de- 
 scriptions to be met with of scenes viewed 
 merely as pictures, or as delighting the 
 imagination through the eye alone. 
 It is not intended by these remarks to 
 * Plin. Ep. lib. xi. 17. 
 
44» THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 prescribe the exclusive or servile imita- 
 tion of any particular species of the re- 
 mains of antiquity, but merely to recom- 
 mend an adherence to those general 
 principles of excellence on which the 
 Greeks worked, and which are observa- 
 ble in all their undertakings in this art, 
 whether erected for the purposes of or- 
 nament or of utility. Indeed, a spirit of 
 imitation, not founded on such principles, 
 would evince the frigid pedantry of the 
 mechanic, rather than the exercise of a 
 highly-cultivated and liberal profession ; 
 and any architect who should slavishly 
 regulate his practice by a strict ad- 
 herence to the models of antiquity, with- 
 out fully consulting our peculiar habits 
 and customs, and considering the nature 
 of our climate, would probably meet 
 with the neglect which he deserved. 
 Still less can these observations have anv 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 45 
 
 tendency to depreciate a style of archi- 
 tecture, the principles of which have 
 recently been laid down with singular 
 feeling and accuracy of taste * ; — a style, 
 which aims chiefly at picturesque effect, 
 which seeks to harmonise and connect 
 the building with the landscape around 
 it, and in which the eye of a painter is, 
 perhaps, not less indispensable than the 
 science of the architect j — which is re- 
 commended not only by the intricacy 
 and variety of its parts, but, if the ex- 
 pression may be permitted, by an union 
 with the vegetable world, arising either 
 from the skilful grouping of trees and 
 shrubs, the luxuriant growth of creeping 
 plants, or the blended tints of mosses, 
 lichens, and other parasitic vegetation. 
 To a style founded on these principles, 
 
 * Price. Essay on Architecture and Buildings as 
 connected with Scenery. 
 
46 THE PKINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 it is evident that all precepts derived 
 from the simple and regular structures 
 of Greece must be perfectly inappli- 
 cable. 
 
 It appears somewhat extraordinary, 
 and is certainly to be lamented, that the 
 Greeks, who carried the practice of so 
 many sciences and arts to a degree of 
 perfection which has since been unat- 
 tainable, should have been so little so- 
 licitous to examine the causes of their 
 rise amongst them, or with any care to 
 trace their progress. Contented with 
 the idle fables handed down from early 
 times, and repeated with additions and 
 embellishments acquired from the ima- 
 gination or garrulity of succeeding nar- 
 rators, their real knowledge of the origin 
 of those objects which excited their 
 pride and admiration, appears to have 
 been vague and unsatisfactory. Even 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 47 
 
 the gradual changes of their language, 
 until a comparatively late period, oc- 
 cupied but little of their attention : and 
 their national history itself, in its early 
 ages, if we except, perhaps, the first 
 book of Thucydides, received no illus- 
 tration from the exertions of rational 
 criticism and philosophical inquiry. 
 
 We may safely conclude, that the hi- 
 story of their architecture was left pretty 
 much in the same state ; for, although no 
 Greek writer on this subject has been 
 preserved to our time, it is probable that 
 their compositions, in addition to the 
 tales generally propagated, were con- 
 fined chiefly to practical instructions, 
 or scientific refinements. Vitruvius not 
 only professes to follow the steps of the 
 Greeks in treating of his art, but all the 
 authors whom he describes as the sources 
 from which he derived his skill and 
 
48 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEALTV 
 
 knowledge, are selected from among 
 that nation : indeed, it would be difficult 
 to exceed the terms of admiration in 
 which he speaks of their ornamental ar- 
 chitecture, and of the principles on which 
 it was founded *. The work, therefore, 
 of the Roman may furnish a just criterion 
 of their labours. This treatise, full of 
 varied learning, remarkable for inge- 
 nuity, science, and acuteness, will not, 
 however, afford any succinct view of the 
 progress of architecture. A multitude 
 of uncertain traditions are collected and 
 detailed without being submitted to any 
 test by which their fallacy may be de- 
 tected : we are bewildered by the op- 
 position of opinions and statements, 
 equally positive and contradictory. But 
 while we are careful not to pay to these 
 authorities the respect due to historical 
 
 * Vitruv. lib. iv. c. 2. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 49 
 
 truth, they ought, in an inquiry into this 
 subject, by no means to be cast aside ; 
 they form, such as it is, the chief body 
 of the information we possess ; and they 
 become doubly valuable when their in- 
 ternal probability is corroborated by il- 
 lustrations incidentally afforded by con- 
 temporary writers, or by the known pecu- 
 liarities of ancient monuments. 
 
 Vitruvius, although the age in which 
 he flourished is a subject of dispute, ap- 
 pears to have lived about the reign of 
 Augustus. His reputation, early esta- 
 blished, is so far from having suffered 
 by the lapse of time, that the admiration 
 of posterity has rendered his name al- 
 most synonymous with excellence in his 
 art. His own professions teach us to 
 expect that his leading principles and 
 precepts would be conformable to the 
 practice of the Greeks ; and, although 
 
 E 
 
50 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 the great masters of the art, since the 
 period of its revival in Italy, probably 
 from their ignorance of the Grecian 
 models still existing, appear never to 
 have studied him with such an object in 
 view ; yet the result of an exact and 
 minute inquiry has fully realised this 
 expectation *. 
 
 Vitruvius brought to the composition 
 of his work the possession of much of 
 the learning of that period ; so much 
 indeed, as probably to embrace the ex- 
 tensive range of acquirements which he 
 has himself laid down as necessary for 
 the architect. To this he added a mind 
 replete with notions in a high degree 
 fanciful and visionary, and influenced by 
 a strong bias to metaphysical distinction 
 and refinement. Hence arose his la- 
 
 * Wilkins's translation of Vitruvius. Notes, and 
 explanation of the plates. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 51 
 
 boiired dissertations on the unintelligible 
 connexion between architecture and 
 music, and the institution of that scale 
 of harmonic proportions which has ex- 
 ercised the ingenuity of the learned, to 
 so little purpose, down to the present 
 day ; and which has led one of the most 
 able of his commentators gravely to state 
 that he considered the deficiency of mu- 
 sical knowledge as the great cause of 
 the inferiority of modern architecture *. 
 Hence too, arose the perception of an 
 analogy which Vitruvius supposed to 
 exist between the members of architec- 
 ture and those of the human frame ; a 
 notion which, notwithstanding its ab- 
 surd and fantastical nature, he has 
 pursued to a great extent. It was 
 
 * Galiani, Vitruv. lib. ii. c, 1 . not. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 this imaginary resemblance which in- 
 duced one of the greatest artists of 
 modern times still further to declare, 
 that even a knowledge of anatomy 
 was so indispensable to an architect, 
 that without it he must necessarily be 
 ignorant of his profession *. How this 
 knowledge, which he certainly possessed 
 in a high degree, influenced his own 
 practice as an architect, is not very ap- 
 parent ; but by an affected and ostenta- 
 tious display of anatomical science as a 
 sculptor, he has much detracted from 
 the beauty and grandeur of some of his 
 most admirable works. But these are 
 
 * Duppa's Life of Michael Angelo, Lett. xix. E 
 pero e cosa certa, die le membra dell' architettura 
 dipendono dalle membra dell' uomo. Chi non e stato, 
 non e buon maestro di figure, e massime di notomia, 
 non se nc puo intenderc. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 53 
 
 dreams ; or, at best, speculations of 
 the most groundless and fallacious de- 
 scription. 
 
 In presenting a view of the progress of 
 architecture among the Greeks, it is not 
 my intention to dwell on the history of its 
 origin, or to speculate at length on the 
 probable means resorted to by a barbarous 
 people in order to protect themselves 
 from the inclemency of the weather. It 
 must be evident, that among all nations 
 an imperious necessity has been the pa- 
 rent of their first endeavours, and that 
 whatever mode they may have adopted, 
 must have been entirely determined by 
 the nature of the materials of which they 
 were in possession. It is probable that 
 in their subsequent advances in the art 
 these early attempts were not wholly 
 forgotten, and that something of their 
 original character was insensibly im- 
 
54) THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 parted to all the improvements of suc- 
 ceeding ages. Thus, we find the dark 
 and ponderous buildings of the Egyp- 
 tians resembling, in some degree, the 
 rocky caverns to which, in a country 
 destitute of wood, their troglodite an- 
 cestors had recourse *. The ornamental 
 architecture of Greece, in its most es- 
 sential parts, bore a striking testimony 
 to the early use of that timber with 
 which the country abounded. In India 
 we discover the primitive employment 
 of reeds and bamboo, in the lofty and 
 slendor buildings of later times ; and in 
 China there is scarcely an edifice, the 
 roof of which is not constructed in 
 imitation of the moveable tents of their 
 Tartarian forefathers. 
 
 It has been observed that want is the 
 mother of the inferior arts, but case of 
 * Diodor. Sicul. lib. i. c. 45. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE, 55 
 
 the finer ; and the principle of this ob- 
 servation may be considered as appli- 
 cable to the varying state of Grecian 
 architecture during the different periods 
 of its history: for this art, from the date 
 of its invention, must have experienced 
 those gradations in its progress to per- 
 fection, to which all others are necessarily 
 subject ; and however this progress may 
 have been retarded or facilitated by the 
 intervention of temporary and accidental 
 causes, we shall not fail to perceive the 
 successive changes from rudeness to 
 simplicity, from grandeur to magnifi- 
 cence. As an ornamental science, it may 
 naturally be expected to have kept pace 
 with the advances made in those arts to 
 which it is nearly allied, an improved 
 culture of each depending mainly on the 
 same vigour of imagination and general 
 refinement of taste. In Greece, there- 
 
56 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 fore, that powerful cause, or combination 
 of causes, which so early produced by 
 the operations of genius such a magical 
 effect on the arts of design, exerted a 
 similar influence on the state of archi- 
 tecture ; and if this were the place to 
 prosecute the inquiry, a most remark- 
 able correspondence might be traced in 
 the respective conditions of these various 
 arts throughout the whole history of that 
 wonderful people. 
 
 Different writers have attempted to 
 show that the prototype of all, even the 
 most minute members of architecture, is 
 to be found in nature, or among acci- 
 dental combinations of natural objects : 
 but although these conjectures be not 
 destitute of probability, and open a wide 
 field for the exercise of ingenuity, they 
 are not immediately connected with the 
 main purpose of this inquiry. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 57 
 
 On the rude endeavours of savages in 
 the construction of their primaeval liuts 
 Vitruvius has sufficiently dwelt. But 
 on the more interesting question of the 
 obligations imposed on the architecture 
 of Greece, by the previously established 
 practice of Egypt, he is silent ; and not 
 only neglects to inquire into this point, 
 but appears to avoid all mention of the 
 buildings of the latter country. How- 
 ever forcibly the different character as- 
 sumed by Grecian art may incline us to 
 doubt its Egyptian origin, it will be dif- 
 ficult to resist the unanimous voice of 
 antiquity on this subject ; for we shall 
 scarcely find a district of Greece without 
 its tradition of foreign adventurers, bring- 
 ing to the coasts an improved state of 
 knowledge and civilization ; and whether 
 these personages are to be traced di- 
 rectly to Egypt, or rather to Syria, is iin- 
 
58 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 material, as in that age the two countries 
 were nearly identified *. The vanity of 
 some nations may, perhaps, receive gra- 
 tification from the fabled intercourse of 
 their ancestors with foreign heroes, and 
 their own descent from such a source. 
 The expedition of ^neas, and even the 
 settlement of the Trojan Brutus might 
 be pleasing to their self-created poste- 
 rity ; but the proud feelings of the earth- 
 born Athenians could never have been 
 flattered by the invention of a tale which 
 confessed their rescue from the rudest 
 state of barbarism by an unknown Egyp- 
 tian, whose only claim to notice is in 
 his capacity of their legislator. A con- 
 
 * See some conclusive observations on this subject. 
 Mitford's Hist, of Gr. v. I. It must, liowever, be 
 admitted that the silence of Homer tends, iu some 
 degree, to invalidate the notion of Egyptian co- 
 lonization. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 59 
 
 firmation of the prior advances made in 
 the arts of design by the inhabitants 
 of the coast of Syria and of Egypt is 
 afforded by the conclusive testimony 
 of Homer, from whose expressions the 
 wealth and magnificence of the Egyp- 
 tians are apparent, and with whom it is 
 a sufficient commendation of any object 
 of beauty and elegance that it should be 
 called Sidonian. The distinctive appel- 
 lation which he has given to this people, 
 is that of * skilful workmen *. It is true, 
 that with the Greeks the arts soon lost 
 the character impressed on them by their 
 first teachers : their sculpture, at a very 
 early period, far from bearing any resem- 
 blance to the timid and lifeless produc- 
 tions of the Egyptian artists, was carried 
 to the opposite extreme ; all is energy ; 
 and the spirit and truth of the work are in 
 * StJoVej TroXv$ai$a>.oi. II, xxiii. 744. et pass. 
 
60 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 a manner burlesqued by distorted action 
 and violent gesture. This entire change 
 was owing to the same active and enter- 
 prising mind, wliich had enabled them 
 still more rapidly to advance their poetry 
 to perfection, and which arose probably 
 from the general freedom of their go- 
 vernments, and the constant communi- 
 cation between numerous independent 
 states. Yet, even in Greece, there was 
 a time in which sculpture unquestionably 
 partook of that stiff columnar style, 
 which, from the remotest antiquity, pre- 
 vailed on the banks of the Nile, unim- 
 proved and unchanged by succeeding 
 ages. The Dajdalean statues, notwith- 
 standing the exaggeration of ancient 
 writers, appear to have been of this kind, 
 and the existing descriptions of the ear- 
 liest representations of the deities, with 
 the imitations of these works still re- 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 61 
 
 maining to our times, place tlie resem- 
 blance beyond all doubt. Architecture 
 too, although it quickly ceased to be 
 solely employed in the erection of ope- 
 rose and tasteless fabrics, and became in 
 the hands of the Greeks distinguished 
 for propriety, elegance, and grandeur, 
 may yet be said to have been, in some 
 measure, indebted to the practical en- 
 deavours of this inferior people. 
 
 In thus mentioning the obligations of 
 Grecian architecture to the practice of 
 Egypt, the statement must be under- 
 stood as limited to the mere mechanism 
 of the art, and not as intended in any 
 degree to detract from the just claims of 
 the Greeks to originality. If, indeed, 
 the discovery of all that is admirable, of 
 all in which its beauty and attractions 
 consist, can sanction such a claim, we 
 may safely place this art among those 
 
62- THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 which they most distinguished by the 
 fertiUty of their invention, as well as by 
 the unparalleled beauties of their exe- 
 cution * . 
 
 In treating of an age far removed 
 from the approach of regular history, it 
 is fortunate that we are furnished with 
 a guide so unerring as Homer, whose 
 general accuracy of observation, and mi- 
 nuteness of description, are such, as to 
 afford a copious source of information 
 respecting almost every thing connected 
 with the times in which he composed his 
 work ; and who, being nearly contem- 
 
 * The qualities of an able architect seem always to 
 have been rare even in Greece, in the whole of which, 
 according to Plato, very few such could be found. 
 He says that the pay of a common builder was five or 
 six minae, but that an architect would require more 
 than ten thousand drachms. Plat. Efara<- Ed. 
 Sorran. t. i. p. 13."). 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 63 
 
 porary with the events which he relates, 
 and, indeed, with the earliest matter for 
 record in Greece, cannot fall into mis- 
 takes and anachronisms in arts, or man- 
 ners, or government, as he might have 
 done, had he lived at a more advanced 
 and refined period. 
 
 It may be right, however, in this place 
 to observe, that in proportion to the 
 value of the historical information af- 
 forded by the works of Homer, and the 
 implicit credit due to his testimony, we 
 should be peculiarly scrupulous in ad- 
 mitting any passage which may possibly 
 be spurious, although possessing the au- 
 thority of his name. This is not the 
 proper place to undertake an inquiry 
 into the origin of the Homeric poems ; 
 but the multitude of interpolations, which 
 are known to exist throughout these ad- 
 mirable productions, render the utmost 
 
64 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 caution necessary, especially where any 
 hypothesis is to be maintained merely 
 bv a doubtful allusion or an insulated 
 expression. 
 
 Whether either the Iliad or the Odys- 
 sey was the work of a single hand has 
 been much doubted, perhaps with rea- 
 son ; but certainly with a considerable 
 appearance of reason, supported by evi- 
 dence both external and internal, so far 
 at least as the Iliad is concerned. The 
 total ignorance of the history, or even 
 real name of their author, the variety of 
 great poems, amounting to more than 
 twenty in number, attributed to him by 
 the ancients, and the contention of dif- 
 ferent states for the honour of his birth, 
 are embarrassing circumstances when 
 considered with reference to a single 
 individual. But whatever may be the 
 fact with respect to the author or authors 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. f)5 
 
 of these poems, the great mass of both is 
 undoubtedly of sufficient antiquity to be 
 received as casting the strongest, and, 
 indeed, the only light we possess, on the 
 earliest ages of Grecian history. It is 
 against the pretended genuineness of de- 
 tached verses and small fragments that 
 we should be on our guard, for such are 
 most likely to be of recent introduc- 
 tion ; and a few words on the manner 
 in which these interpolations have found 
 their way into the poems, will show that 
 such a corruption of the text was almost 
 inevitable. 
 
 Without stopping to inquire whether 
 the Homeric poems were consigned to 
 writing at the period of their promul- 
 gation, or whether a written character 
 was even known to their author, we may, 
 in passing, remark the singular circum- 
 stance, that he who alludes almost to 
 
CG THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 every occupation of men, and draws his 
 illustrations from all their pursuits, is 
 wholly silent with respect to this valuable 
 art, even where the mention of it would 
 have been most obvious. It may even 
 be affirmed with confidence, that on the 
 supposition of a written character exist- 
 ing at the time, it would be altogether 
 impossible for an author to compose a 
 long poem of many thousand lines, re- 
 lating to human affairs, or indeed on any 
 subject whatever, which did not contain 
 either a direct mention of the art, or 
 such allusions at least, as should neces- 
 sarily imply a knowledge of its existence. 
 But this part of the inquiry is not in 
 truth very important, because it is ma- 
 nifest that such works as the Iliad could 
 not easily have been engraved on mar- 
 ble, brass, or wood, the only materials 
 employed by the Greeks for a long time 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 67 
 
 subsequent to the period in question j 
 and therefore the common use of written 
 characters, whatever may have been the 
 precise date of their introduction into 
 Greece, cannot be supposed to have 
 been in any degree coeval wdth that 
 event. Neither is it necessary in this 
 place to examine the probability of the 
 statement respecting the disjointed and 
 unconnected nature of the poems in their 
 original condition, or more particularly 
 to estimate the value of the received 
 opinion respecting the labours of Pisi- 
 stratus in first arranging and embodying 
 these separate productions of the same, 
 or different authors*. Laying aside such 
 
 * The whole of this question is fully and satisfac- 
 torily examined by Heyne, II. torn. viii. Excurs. 1 1. 
 ad lib. 24. See also Wolf. Prolegom. ad Horn. The 
 a-ii\x.oila, Auyfa, mentioned in the sixth book of the 
 Iliad, and the description of the chiefs drawing the 
 
 F 2 
 
fi8 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUT V 
 
 discussions, it is sufficient that we know 
 the fact to be undoubted, of their having 
 been for many ages chiefly preserved in the 
 memories of rhapsodists, or professional 
 reciters. If they were written at all, the 
 copies were rare j for by the nation in 
 general, the poems of Homer were not 
 read, but heard. The rhapsodists, or 
 Homeridae, as they were called, often 
 poets themselves, were persons who de- 
 rived their support, as well as the respect 
 paid to their character, from these re- 
 citations. Their popularity must have 
 mainly depended on the interest of the 
 parts which they delivered to their au- 
 dience : hence we find that the more 
 prominent events of the poems received 
 particular names, and formed the sub- 
 ject of separate recitations. Plato, in the 
 
 marked lots from the helmet of Agamemnon in the 
 seventh, are explained at length, xviii. xix. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. fJ9 
 
 lo, whicli is a satire on the rhapsodists, 
 ridicules their mercenary conduct j and 
 from the motives by which they were 
 actuated, it is obvious that their inter- 
 polations must have been frequent, in 
 order that they might either avail them- 
 selves of the exercise of their own poetic 
 talents, or gratify the vanity of their 
 hearers by allusions to national tales, 
 and subjects of local interest. The early 
 peculiarities of the Greek language and 
 archaic orthography of the Homeric age, 
 were modified by succeeding reciters to 
 suit the forms of speech prevalent in 
 their own times ; and hence the facility 
 of interpolation was much increased, and 
 the difficulty of detection proportionably 
 augmented. From the manner in which 
 the poems were handed down, in de- 
 tached portions, little read or critically 
 examined until a comparatively late pe- 
 
70 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 riod, their condition cannot be con- 
 sidered as likely to secure the integrity 
 of the text : for copies were not usually 
 transcribed entire, but favourite parts or 
 rhapsodies were preserved according to 
 the fancy of the possessor. Alcibiades 
 is said to have beaten a schoolmaster, 
 not because he did not possess a copy of 
 the Iliad, but because he had not a 
 single rhapsody of the Homeric poems 
 in his school. 
 
 A certain test by which we may judge 
 of the spuriousness of all passages is still 
 a desideratum in the critical examination 
 of these immortal works. The Greek 
 writers, in general, from their puerilities, 
 and from their ignorance of the early 
 state of their own language and history, 
 are in such discussions most unsatisfac- 
 tory ; yet the obeli of the Alexandrian 
 critics, and their scholia, preserved by 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 71 
 
 Eustathius, and in the Venetian manu- 
 script of the Iliad, published by Vil- 
 loison, are valuable *. The only certain 
 and steady light, however, which can be 
 thrown on this difficult subject, is af- 
 forded by the early language of Greece, 
 where a competent knowledge of it is a^ 
 tainable. The Greek tongue has shared 
 the fate of all others ; it has been ex- 
 posed to the constant operation of gra- 
 dual change. The original Greek of the 
 Homeric ages and of ApoUonius Rhodius 
 differ nearly as much as the English of 
 Chaucer and Dryden. A knowledge of 
 these early peculiarities is best obtained 
 from the evidence of ancient inscriptions, 
 the legends of coins, and scattered no- 
 tices in later authors ; but more espe- 
 cially from an examination of the Latin 
 
 * Heyne, II. torn. iii. Exc. de Schol. p. 80, et 
 passim. Knight, Prolegom. in Horn. c. 82. 
 
72 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 language, which being derived from the 
 Greek at a very early period of its 
 existence, has retained a multitude of 
 archaisms and forms of speech entirely 
 unknown to the more modern, or Attic 
 Greek. In restoring the actual text of 
 the Iliad or Odyssey to its pristine con- 
 dition, either by the insertion of the 
 ^olic digamma, or the application of 
 any other rule derived from the sources 
 above mentioned, we shall frequently find 
 that the just metre, as at present con- 
 stituted, would be violated ; and in these 
 instances, we may presume that the verse 
 has been constructed according to the 
 usage of a more modern age. This is 
 not the place, however, to enumerate the 
 different modes by which we may be ena. 
 bled to approximate to a knowledge of the 
 pure and genuine text of these poems : and 
 indeed, even if the occasion demanded, 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 73 
 
 and the requisite ability were not want- 
 ing for such an inquiry, it would be ren- 
 dered nearly superfluous by the learned 
 and successful labours of my friend Mr. 
 Knight ; who, in the edition of the Ho- 
 meric poems which he has recently pub- 
 lished, has attempted to restore them to 
 their ancient and primitive state. Al- 
 though a work of this kind must un- 
 doubtedly be considered liable to some 
 corrections, and capable of improvements 
 from the fresh illustrations which are oc- 
 casionally afforded by progressive disco- 
 veries, in a subject so difficult and ob- 
 scure 5 I am fully persuaded that its 
 merits will be most highly appreciated 
 by those who are the best qualified to 
 estimate the almost insurmountable ob- 
 stacles to such an undertaking : while to 
 the lovers of Grecian literature, and 
 especially to the admirers of these no- 
 
74 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY' 
 
 blest productions of human genius, the 
 work, executed in the manner it is, must 
 prove truly interesting and valuable. 
 
 In the early stages of civilization, the 
 main object of an assembled population 
 would naturallybe security ; and from the 
 lawless condition of society, during this 
 period of Grecian history, it appears to 
 have been necessary for the inhabitants to 
 build their towns in situations difficult 
 of access, and in the defence of which, 
 they were as much indebted to the as- 
 sistance of nature as to the employment 
 of art. These fortresses, which, in the 
 infancy of the state, contained its whole 
 population, frequently became only the 
 citadels of towns, which, under their pro- 
 tection, had gradually extended them- 
 selves in the plains beneath. The most 
 ancient Greek cities seem also to have 
 been generally built at some distance 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 75 
 
 from the sea ; doubtless for the same 
 reason which even at the present day 
 often drives the modern inhabitants from 
 the coast, in order to avoid the piratical 
 expeditions so natural at all times to the 
 maritime population of this part of the 
 world. For the attainment of the re- 
 quisite security, and in all their works 
 designed for defence and protection, we 
 may observe the disproportionate and 
 wonderful exertions employed by va- 
 rious nations in the earliest periods 
 of their history ; exertions, which, by 
 their more polished descendants, have 
 usually been attributed to the agency of 
 a supernatural power : for it is remark- 
 able, that with whatever admiration we 
 may view the works of later ages, the 
 gigantic and ponderous masses which 
 call forth our astonishment, have been 
 in all nations the production of a people 
 
76 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 comparatively barbarous. Hence the 
 vast labour bestowed on the construc- 
 tion of walls, the remains of which 
 are so common in different parts of 
 Greece, and which are the first, and cer- 
 tainly among the most wonderful speci- 
 mens of building in that country. Of 
 these the walls of Tiryns are the most 
 ancient, and perhaps the most cele- 
 brated. Homer, in the catalogue, gives 
 to the town the characteristic epithet of 
 ttiyiUvca.* , a clear proof that the walls 
 were calculated to excite admiration in 
 in his time as well as in our own. It is 
 difficult to ascertain the precise date of 
 their erection : but they were said to have 
 been the work of Lycians, under the di- 
 rection of Proctus, the brother of Acri- 
 sius-j*. This story would carry us five or 
 
 =* II. ii. 559. 
 t Straljo, lib. viii. p. 373. Pausiin. Argol. c. iC. 25. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 77 
 
 six generations higher than the era of 
 the Trojan war. In after times, how- 
 ev-er, from their massive and gigantic 
 proportions, as well as from the absence 
 of authentic information respecting 
 them, they were generally considered as 
 having been raised by the Cyclops. The 
 description given by Pausanias is to this 
 day correct*. These walls are about a 
 quarter of a mile in circuit, and embrace 
 a rising ground of inconsiderable eleva- 
 tion, situated in the plain of Argos. 
 There are separate entrances; and lead- 
 ing from one of these, maybe seen a co- 
 vered gallery or passage, formed in the 
 
 * Pausan. Argol. c. 25. — TfsitolrjTai $s d^yiov xl^cvy, 
 ju-a'yf^oj £%w>' axatrros xl^o;, ws air' avtcuy [xr/S' dv 
 
 Ai3-.'a J= Jvij'faooTai itiKai, cJj iJLS/JXKrra, avruJv Ixa- 
 
78 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 thickness of the wall, the course of 
 which it follows to some extent ; the 
 roof, although rudely constructed, in 
 some measure resembles that of the gal- 
 lery in the great pyramid, being com- 
 posed of large stones inclined towards 
 each other, and forming an acute angle 
 by their junction. 
 
 In the vicinage of Tiryns, nearly 
 coeval with it, but far surpassing it in 
 extent, are the remains of Mycena.'. 
 This city, so distinguished at its first 
 introduction to our notice, remained, 
 during the flourishing ages of Grecian 
 history, in a state of ruin and desolation. 
 Tradition names Perseus as its founder, 
 but the execution of the walls, like those 
 of its neighbour town, is referred to the 
 hands of the Cyclops. The condition 
 of Mycenae is, I should suppose, very 
 much that in which it was seen by Pau- 
 
IN .GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 1\) 
 
 sanias, or even by Thucydides five hun- 
 dred years before : indeed, these stu- 
 pendous masses, in their present di- 
 lapidated state, appear to be so inde- 
 structible, as to defy the further injuries 
 of time, as well as the violence of any 
 force inferior to that which was em- 
 ployed in their construction. Pausa- 
 nias informs us, that in his time, among 
 the ruins of the walls, a gate remained, 
 over which was the representation of 
 two lions*. This gate, which seems to 
 have been the principal entrance to the 
 city, does not stand even with the course 
 of the walls, but is placed considerably 
 within the line described by their ge- 
 neral circuit. The approach, therefore, 
 is for some paces by a sort of passage 
 
 * Pausan. Argol. c. 16. Xslirsrai Ss oi^cus en xa» 
 aAAars TrsfifoXs, x.a) ij- ttuAtj' Kiovres SI £(p£(rrrj- 
 K7.(Tiv avrr. 
 
80 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 between the walls, and scarcely of a 
 greater width than the gate by which it 
 is terminated. Defence was the ob- 
 ject of this contrivance, by which few 
 persons abreast could reach the entrance 
 at the same time, and in the attempt 
 must necessarily have been exposed to 
 •destruction from the weapons of the 
 inhabitants stationed on the ramparts 
 of each wall which formed the avenue. 
 By the accumulation of earth this gate 
 is buried nearly up to the top, where it 
 is not more than eight feet wide, yet 
 the lintel is one massive stone twelve 
 feet in length. The jambs, which pro- 
 bably consist only of single stones, are 
 inclined towards each other, the width 
 of the opening being gradually dimi- 
 nished from the bottom ; a contrivance 
 by which the whole building is ap- 
 parently strengthened, and which fur- 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 81 
 
 nishes us witli a singular coincidence 
 with the manner of Egyptian building. 
 The walls themselves have in their con- 
 struction more of care and art, and, per- 
 haps, exhibit the marks of a period 
 somewhat later than those of Tiryns. 
 For, although the polygonal blocks are 
 nearly of the same dimensions, they are 
 fitted together with greater exactness, 
 and have been so shaped in part as to en- 
 sure some degree of regularity ; whereas 
 the walls of Tiryns consist of rude 
 masses of rock piled on each other, the 
 interstices of which are filled up with 
 small stones, and fitted together by the 
 ingenuity of the builder, without having 
 been previously formed by the aid of the 
 chisel or the saw. The lions mentioned 
 by Pausanias are executed in bas-relief 
 on a single stone nine feet in height, 
 and about thirteen feet in width. Their 
 
 o 
 
82 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 heads only are destroyed ; between them 
 is placed a species of small column sup- 
 porting a capital of a singular form, on 
 which their fore legs rest. Whether we 
 are to view this work as possessing any 
 mystic and symbolical meaning, or to 
 explain it as an obvious and general em- 
 blem, or even as the private device and 
 impresa of an individual, this is not the 
 place to inquire. It may be sufficient 
 to observe, that probably no example of 
 Grecian sculpture is to be found of equal 
 antiquity, and certainly none whose age 
 is fixed by evidence in any degree so sa- 
 tisfactory. 
 
 There are many walls in various parts 
 of Greece which, from a resemblance in 
 their construction, and, in some instances, 
 even in their magnitude, to those of Ti- 
 ryns and Mycenae, have acquired the ap- 
 pellation of Cyclopian. These may be 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 83 
 
 considered as among the first attempts 
 of Grecian art : although in assigning to 
 them generally this early date some cau- 
 tion is requisite ; for those characteristics 
 which at Athens and Argos may pro- 
 perly be viewed as the unquestionable 
 marks of the most ancient times, do not 
 necessarily lead to a similar conclusion 
 when found in Macedonia and Epirus. 
 Perhaps the best criterion of antiquity is 
 afforded by their massive and gigantic 
 proportions ; for we should scarcely be 
 justified in indiscriminately referring mo- 
 numents to these remote ages, solely 
 from the appearance of a rudeness and 
 peculiarity which may have arisen from 
 ignorance, or even from the affectation 
 of an archaism not unfrequently to be 
 met with. Indeed it is manifest that as 
 this is the readiest and simplest mode of 
 building, as practised in all countries and 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 in all ages, it can only be in consequence 
 of their vast dimensions, that such mo- 
 numents have received the appellation of 
 Cyclopian ; which term, therefore, when 
 properly explained, will only signify 
 architecture of an indefinite antiquity, 
 of rude workmanship, and of which the 
 dimensions are such as almost to appear 
 to be the effect of preternatural force. 
 It would be an unprofitable task to in- 
 quire into the history of those fabulous 
 builders from whom this title has been 
 derived. The result could not fail to 
 prove in the greatest degree contradic- 
 tory and uncertain ; as the Greeks, with 
 their usual negligence and facility of be- 
 lief, have given the same term to all 
 structures of a similar description, with- 
 out any reference to their real authors, 
 age, or origin. The term being thus 
 vague in its application, it is of the less 
 
IN ORECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 85 
 
 consequence whether we trace the sup- 
 posed inventors of the style to Lycia, 
 to Sicily, or to Crete ; or consider them 
 as a portion of the Pelasgic race, the 
 ancient inhabitants of Greece ; for, in 
 truth, all these tribes, as well as many 
 others, in the early periods of their 
 history, may with equal propriety lay 
 claim to the Cyclopiah character in their 
 architectural works. 
 
 The same motives of defence and se- 
 curity which, during the unsettled and 
 turbulent condition of Greece at the first 
 dawning of its civilization, prompted the 
 small independent states to strengthen 
 the walls of their cities with such incre- 
 dible labour, seem very generally to 
 have influenced these communities, as 
 well as some of the more powerful indi- 
 viduals, in the measures adopted for the 
 preservation of their wealth and valuable 
 
86 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 possessions. Treasuries were common in 
 Greece at a very remote period. Minyas, 
 who ruled the Boeotian Orchomenos, con- 
 siderably before the era of the Trojan 
 war, is said to have been the first who 
 erected a building for this purpose * : and 
 the consecration of precious offerings to 
 Apollo at Delphi is coeval with the first 
 notices of Grecian history. The wealth 
 of the * Minyaean Orchomenos' is cele- 
 brated in that passage of the Iliad, in 
 which Achilles rejects the offers of Aga- 
 memnon 1: and when, in the course of his 
 reflections, he goes on to say that the loss 
 of life cannot be compensated even by 
 the possession of all the riches inclosed in 
 the * stone mansion of Apollot,' I think 
 
 » Pausan. Boeot. c. 36, f II, ix. 381. 
 
 X 'Ou8' 070, XcH'.vo; 8$oi df-r^ro^Qs Ivrog sepyei 
 
 i'olos 'AifoWivvos ITy-^o7 sv* itetorjia-o-r,. 
 
 II. ix. 404. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 87 
 
 it iiighly probable that Homer alludes, 
 not, as is generally understood, to a tem- 
 ple, which there is reason to believe did 
 not exist at that time, but to some trea- 
 sury, which, from the manner of building 
 employed in these edifices, might well 
 deserve the characteristic appellation of 
 AAIN02 ; and a passage of Strabo tends 
 to confirm the accuracy of this conjecture; 
 for he expressly declares that the words 
 of Homer were construed by some to 
 signify a subterranean treasury, and not 
 the temple of Apollo*. 
 
 Many Grecian states had their sepa- 
 rate treasuries at Delphi, as well as at 
 Olympia. That of the Corinthians was 
 built by Cypselus the father of Periander, 
 about six hundred and fifty years before 
 
 * Strab. lib. ix. p. 421. d(prjlopos J'aJov, Tov >ca7a 
 y^j ^ri(rav^i<r(jt,bv k. r. A. 
 
88 THE PRINCIPLES OP BEAUTY 
 
 Christ. The ti'easury of Atreus and his 
 family is mentioned by Pausanias as ex- 
 isting at Mycenge in his time, and there 
 are other scattered notices of these early 
 buildings occasionally to be met with in 
 Greek writers. The artists of the heroic 
 ages most celebrated in constructing these 
 edifices were the brothers Agamedes and 
 Trophonius, concerning whom many par- 
 ticulars are related, but of whom nothing 
 certain is known, and whose very exist- 
 ence seems more than doubtful. They 
 are not once mentioned or alluded to in 
 the Homeric writings ; for the Hymn to 
 Apollo cannot be considered as possessing 
 any claim to such high antiquity. In 
 this poem however they are mentioned 
 as the builders of the temple at Delphi ; 
 and it is remarkable that the words em- 
 ployed to designate the edifice liave been 
 borrowed by the author from the peculiar 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 89 
 
 expression in the Iliad*. A story is told 
 by Pausanias j", of their employing an 
 artifice in building the treasury of Hy- 
 rieus, which by enabling them easily to 
 displace a certain stone of the edifice, 
 gave them the power of secretly entering, 
 and of purloining the riches deposited 
 there, at their pleasure. Agamedes w^as 
 at last caught in a snare placed in the 
 treasury for that purpose ; and Tropho- 
 nius, finding it impossible to extricate 
 him, cut off his brother's head, in order 
 to prevent his own detection. All this, 
 however, with additional circumstances 
 of absurdity and disgust, is detailed by 
 Herodotus in the words of the Egyptian 
 priests, from whom he had the fable, and 
 to which country the scene and actors 
 
 * Hymn, in Apoll. v. 296. 
 
 Ad'ivov iiSov eflijxg T^ocpuuvios, ijiJ' 'Ayafx.^Srji, 
 
 f Pausan. Boeot. c. 37. 
 
90 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 exclusively belong*. We cannot there- 
 fore place any reliance on the tales re- 
 specting these brothers ; nor ought we 
 to give more credence to the greater per- 
 formances ascribed to Daedalus, whose 
 fabulous existence is still less equivocal t* 
 All works of sculpture or other monu- 
 ments of the highest antiquity and com- 
 parative merit, appear to have been called 
 Daedalian, whicli epithet perhaps implied 
 nothing more than skilful. Pausanias ex- 
 pressly says (Boeot. c. 3.) that statues were 
 called Daedalian before the birth of Dae- 
 dalus. AAIAAA02 therefore signified, in 
 fact, only * the artist t.* This person, it 
 is true, is mentioned in the Iliad, but 
 there can be no doubt whatever that we 
 should consider the passage as spurious ; 
 
 * Herod, lib. ii. c. 121. f Herod, lib. ii. c. 148. 
 
 X For additional particulars containing a satis- 
 factory refutation of the ancient accounts of this 
 artist, see Goguet. Orig. des Loix. toni. ii. p. 11. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 91 
 
 for even those who dissent from the opi- 
 nions of Heyne and others, in their pro- 
 posed rejection of the whole episode in 
 which it is inserted, agree in stigmatising 
 the genuineness of the particular words 
 here referred to. They are to be found 
 in the description of the shield of Achilles, 
 in which allusion is made to the repre- 
 sentation of a dance executed by Dgeda- 
 lus in celebration of the victory of The- 
 seus over the Minotaur, and his escape 
 from the labyrinth *. The story to which 
 this relates is not to be discovered in the 
 genuine part of the Homeric poems, and 
 although it would be superfluous to lose 
 time in the detection of so manifest an 
 interpolation, abundant proof may be af- 
 forded in few words from the account 
 alone which is given of the labyrinth. If 
 a building of this nature ever did exist in 
 * II. xviii. 591, 2. 
 
92 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 Crete, a supposition probably unfounded, 
 all writers agree in stating that it was 
 constructed by Djedalus in imitation of 
 that which he had seen in Egypt. Now, 
 Herodotus, the first author who has de- 
 scribed, and in the most detailed manner, 
 the Egyptian labyrinth, positively asserts 
 that this stupendous edifice was the work 
 of the twelve kings, that is to say, be- 
 tween six and seven hundred years after 
 the date necessarily assigned to the Cretan 
 labyrinth of Daedalus. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting monu- 
 ment of these ages is the treasury of 
 Atreus, still existing at Mycena?. It is 
 a building of a conical shape, or, more 
 correctly speaking, in the form of a pa- 
 raboloid, about fifty feet in diameter, 
 and rather more in height ; the stones of 
 which it is composed are of great mag- 
 nitude ; that in particular, which covers 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 93 
 
 the entrance, is of enormous dimensions. 
 They are placed on horizontal hiyers, 
 each gradually projecting over the other 
 until they meet at the top ; the whole 
 therefore has the appearance of a pointed 
 dome, but the mode in which it is con- 
 structed denotes an entire ignorance of 
 the principle of the arch. That the in- 
 terior surface was formerly covered with 
 plates of brass we have good reason to 
 suppose, for large nails of the same metal, 
 by which they were anciently fastened, 
 still adhere to the stones in different parts 
 of the building. The whole of this sin- 
 gular edifice is covered with earth, and 
 presents in its outward form the resem- 
 blance of a mound or tumulus. This cir- 
 cumstance has, no doubt, suggested the 
 appellation of the tomb of Agamemnon, 
 which it usually bears, and which is also 
 mentioned by Pausanias ; but independ- 
 
94 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 ently of his description of the subter- 
 ranean treasury, whicli sufficiently points 
 out the destination of this building*, the 
 Homeric rites of sepulture are too ac- 
 curately detailed to render it possible for 
 us to admit the probability of such a sup- 
 position. Some additional illustration is 
 to be derived from the few remains of the 
 treasury of Minyas, which are still to be 
 seen at Orchomenus ; and from these, as 
 well as from the account of Pausanias t, 
 there is little doubt that it was precisely 
 similar to that which has just now been 
 described. An ingenious traveller, who 
 had never heard of the building at My- 
 cenae, and whose premature death pre- 
 vented him from ever seeing it, by mea- 
 
 * Pausan. Cor. c. l6. iv J= ro7; scsmio^i — 'Ar^sws 
 
 c^icrj rwv p^fijaarwv ■)j(rav. 
 t Pausan. Boeot. c. 38. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 95 
 
 SLiring these remains and applying them 
 to the restoration of the original design, 
 produced a building, in plan differing in 
 no respect from the treasury of Atreus. 
 The scattered notices which we possess 
 of works erected throughout Greece for 
 the same purpose, contribute to remove 
 all doubt as to the origin of the structure, 
 which, by a conjecture equally erroneous, 
 has been sometimes denominated the 
 temple, as well as the tomb of Aga- 
 memnon. Homer perhaps alludes to a 
 building not very different from these 
 when he mentions the treasury of Priam, 
 into which the aged monarch is said to 
 descend, for the purpose of selecting the 
 precious objects for the ransom of the 
 dead body of his son ; hence we may 
 reasonably infer that it was a subter- 
 ranean edifice. He gives it also the pe- 
 culiarly characteristic epithet of lofty- 
 
96 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 roofed*. It is to be observed that the 
 later treasuries, although they preserved 
 the circular form, were often built with 
 porticoes in front. Pausanias describes 
 the treasury of the state of Megara at 
 Olympia, as having the war of the giants 
 represented in the tympanum of the pedi- 
 ment t ; from which it is evidentthat there 
 must have been a portico. It is not un- 
 likely that the Pantheon at Rome, which 
 corresponds with this description, may 
 originally have had a similar destination. 
 If we seek for those parts of architec- 
 ture properly termed ornamental, which 
 were known to Homer, we shall discover 
 scarcely any thing to answer this descrip- 
 tion, and nothing that can afford the least 
 intimation of his having possessed any 
 knowledge of those varieties under which 
 the different modes of building have since 
 
 * II. xxiv. 1!)1. t Pausan. El. post. c. ip. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 97 
 
 been classed. The chief decoration of 
 the age seems to have consisted in a 
 poHshed surface. The stones were large, 
 well fitted together, and above all, per- 
 fectly smooth. The charm and grace of 
 forms were unknown ; for although the 
 chambers and buildings themselves are 
 sometimes said to be lofty, there is no 
 indication of any symmetrical propor- 
 tion. In the imaginary palace of Al- 
 cinous, which is intended as the model 
 of ideal perfection in the art, no attempt 
 is made to describe architectural beauties : 
 but to compensate for the defect, no ex- 
 aggeration is spared to make it rich. We 
 have brazen walls and golden doors, with 
 silver posts and lintels*. The palace of 
 Menelaus is represented in nearly the 
 same general terms of magnificence. It 
 was full of brass and gold, silver and 
 * Od. vii. 88. 
 
 H 
 
98 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 ivory: it was resplendent as the sun and 
 moon, and appeared in the eyes of Tele- 
 machns Hke the mansions of Jupiter him- 
 self*. All this seems pretty clearly to 
 indicate the total deficiency of what can 
 with any propriety be called architectural 
 ornament. 
 
 Perhaps we may in a great measure 
 ascribe the simplicity which reigned in 
 these early buildings to the peculiar su- 
 perstition of that period. It is certain 
 that the same spirit of devotion which in 
 succeeding times filled every state with 
 splendid monuments of art, did not then 
 exist, and I think there is great reason to 
 believe that in the Homeric age temples 
 were even scarcely known in Greece. 
 It is remarkable that in the Iliad mention 
 is but once made of any Grecian temple, 
 and I tliink there will be little difficulty 
 
 * 0(1. iv. 45. 74. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 99 
 
 in proving this passage to be an inter- 
 polation. In the catalogue of the ships, 
 when the forces of Athens are enume- 
 rated, they are called * the people of the 
 
 * noble Erectheus, whom the fertile earth 
 
 * produced, and whom Minerva nourished. 
 
 * She placed him in her own rich temple, 
 
 * where he is annually propitiated by the 
 
 * Athenian youth w4th sacrifices of bulls 
 
 * and lambs*.' To disprove the authen- 
 ticity of this passage, it is sufficient to 
 state that throughout the Iliad there is 
 no indication which can lead us to sup- 
 pose that Homer was acquainted with 
 the practice of hero-worship. Divine 
 honors were not paid even to Hercules, 
 
 * II. ii. 547. 
 
 A^,u,ov 'E/5e;'^9^o; /A£yaAy)ro/50^, ov tor' 'A6)jvij 
 Qps'^s, Ajoj ^vyocTYjp, t£X£ Js ^s'lSujpos "Apovpa, 
 KctiJ' S' BV 'A9ijyij(r* sla-ev, lew av) iriovi vyjuJ. 
 'EvflaJe ju-iv ra,v^oi<n Koci d^vsiots Ixdovr'a.i. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 or to any of those mortals who afterwards 
 became objects of adoration in Greece. 
 The origin of the interpolation may be 
 easily traced to the desire of some Athe- 
 nian rhapsodist, to gratify his own na- 
 tional vanity, and that of his audience, 
 at the expense of truth; for there existed 
 in Athens a most ancient temple dedi- 
 cated both to Minerva and to Erectheus, 
 in which they had their respective altars, 
 and which was perhaps more revered 
 than any other building in the city. This 
 connexion, so sacred, so gratifying, the 
 memorials of which were of an antiquity 
 so high, might, without much scruple, be 
 made to receive additional dignity from 
 its insertion in the divine work of Homer. 
 The fable also, invented by the Athenians 
 themselves, respecting the production of 
 Erectheus from the earth, was too flat- 
 tering to their vain-glorious pretensions 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 101 
 
 as Autocthones, to be forgotten on this 
 occasion. We may observe likewise that 
 in the passage in question they are called 
 ' the people of Erectheus ' — ahmon 
 'E^sx^^^i — This is a term by which Homer 
 never describes any other state, and 
 which indeed is evidently derived from 
 their own subsequent condition, and pe- 
 culiar appellation, under a republican 
 form of government : it cannot therefore 
 be applicable to them as the followers of 
 Menestheus. These arguments appear 
 to be sufficient. It is proper neverthe- 
 less to mention that Plato manifestly re- 
 fers to this passage, in one of his dia- 
 logues, without intimating a doubt of its 
 being genuine ; but such a reference, al- 
 though it may undoubtedly serve to prove 
 the antiquity of the interpolation, can by 
 no means alter its character*. 
 
 * Plat. Alcib. jprim. t. i. p. 132. ed. Senaii. — The 
 
102 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 If, however, we may with good reason 
 believe that temples were unknown in 
 European Greece during the age of Ho- 
 mer, and that the altar, with its sacred 
 inclosure, was the scene of all public 
 sacrifices and religious rites, we are led 
 to think that some difference existed in 
 this respect on the Asiatic coast ; for in 
 Troy we find a temple of Minerva is 
 mentioned, although without any de- 
 scription or circumstance of ornament. 
 — The doors are opened, and the goddess 
 is approached*, — the building appears 
 to have been solely intended as a sort of 
 shrine or receptacle for the statue ; if 
 
 conjecture of the interpolation of these lines has re- 
 cently received the sanction of Mr. Knight's opinion, 
 fl ho further states that the expression ^slSw^og "Af owf a 
 signified, in the earliest ages of the language, the cul- 
 tivable surface of the earth, rather than the earth it- 
 self. Knight. II. not. iu B. p. 11. 
 * II. vi. 297. — ^ujac cwi^e ©eavw — 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 103 
 
 indeed it be not possible, as an ingenious 
 friend has suggested to me, that the poet 
 intended to describe the presence of Mi- 
 nerva herself, and not her image ; espe- 
 cially as it does not appear that the re- 
 presentation of any deity is elsewhere 
 mentioned in the Iliad. Allusion is like- 
 wise made, but unaccompanied with any 
 particulars, to a temple of Apollo in the 
 vicinity of the same city*. In the Odys- 
 sey notices may occasionally be found of 
 sacred buildings even in Greece, and this 
 is to be considered as one, among other 
 indications, which mark that poem as the 
 production of a later age. 
 
 The early Greeks, therefore, being in 
 a great measure deprived of this abund- 
 ant source of future magnificence, their 
 chief display of skill and splendor in the 
 art was confined to the erection of the 
 * Probably in Tenedos. 11. i. 38. 11. 446. 11. vii. 83. 
 
104 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 habitations of their princes, and to the 
 buildings dependent on them. These, as 
 I have ah'eady stated, appear to have 
 possessed Httle of architectural orna- 
 ment. It is not my intention, however, 
 to attempt any minutely-detailed de- 
 scription of these edifices, for the in- 
 quiry, although not uninteresting, being 
 unassisted by the remains of any coeval 
 monument, and being founded on the 
 disputed interpretation of various pas- 
 sages, some of which are themselves of 
 doubtful antiquity, cannot be expected 
 to lead to any very accurate result. A 
 general view of this species of the Ho- 
 meric architecture will be sufficient, pre- 
 serving at the same time some attention 
 to such particulars, as from their charac- 
 ter of ornament may serve to afford a 
 more correct notion of the state of the 
 art. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 105 
 
 These mansions, whose chief recom- 
 mendation was constituted by solidity 
 and extent, were built round a court ; a 
 plan universally adopted in succeeding 
 ages, and which still prevails in the same 
 countries. The palace of Priam answers 
 this description ; it was composed of hewn 
 stone, constructed with open chambers 
 or porticoes, and in addition to the part 
 occupied by the old king, contained fifty 
 apartments allotted to his sons, and on 
 the opposite side of the court twelve se- 
 parate habitations for his sons-in-law and 
 their wives*. The chambers in general 
 of the Homeric buildings, with the ex- 
 ception of the great hall of the palace, 
 appear to have been small, at least no ex- 
 pression occurs respecting them which 
 can lead us to think otherwise. Rich fur- 
 niture was not uncommon ; the seats and 
 
 * II. vi. 242—50. 
 
106 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 couches were frequently distinguished 
 by their costly materials and beautiful 
 workmanship*; but the chief decoration 
 consisted, probably, in the magnificence 
 of the arms, and in the skilful manner in 
 which they were arranged t. 
 
 We may conclude that the form of the 
 roof was pointed, for in the funeral games 
 when Ajax and Ulysses grasp each other 
 for the purpose of wrestling, they are 
 compared by Homer to two beams of 
 the roof, which some able architect had 
 closely fitted together at the summit t. 
 These rafters in subsequent ages retained 
 the appellation by which they are cha- 
 racterised in the Iliad §. Terms of ad- 
 miration are sometimes used in mention- 
 ing the beams II, but they are vague, and 
 
 * II. xi. (J44. xviii. 390. Od. xx. 160. 
 
 + II. vi. 321. + II. xxiii. 712. 
 
 § Poll. X. Iil>. 1. c. 8. II 0(l. xix. 37. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 107 
 
 contain nothing descriptive of their qua- 
 hty. It is not easy to conjecture in what 
 their beauty may have consisted, unless 
 perhaps in strength and suitable pro- 
 portion. The interior part of the roof, 
 it would seem, was usually left open to 
 the top, with the insertion however of 
 other timbers, in order to afford addi- 
 tional security. Columns supported the 
 horizontal beams, to one of which the 
 goat-herd Melanthius was drawn up and 
 bound by order of Ulysses until his exe- 
 cution*. From one of the beams, also, 
 Minerva, in the figure of a bird, beheld 
 the destruction of the suitors j". Homer 
 
 * Od. xxii. 195. 
 
 f lb. 239. — There is a passage in the Orestes of 
 Euripides, which not only indicates the ancient con- 
 struction of roofs to have been of this description, but 
 which, if it were possible to give any credit to the 
 accuracy of the Greek tragedians in these matters, 
 M'ould at once convince us of the existence in the 
 
108 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 extols the skill of the Trojan architects : 
 a sufficient proof of the superior advances 
 made by the Asiatics in the art ; and yet 
 it is remarkable, that neither in the pa- 
 lace of Priam, nor in that of Paris, said 
 to be raised by the most able workmen, 
 is there any thing which indicates the 
 appearance of ornament, excepting the 
 mention of polished stone*. This, in- 
 Homeric mansions of those ornamental distinctions 
 of Doric and Ionic architecture which were the crea- 
 tion of a later age. After the murder of Helen at 
 Argos^ her Phrygian attendant informs the Chorus 
 that he escaped from the palace over the cedar beams 
 of the roof and the Doric triglj-phs. 
 
 Ao^iTixg 7*6 r^iyXv<pag. 
 
 Escaping by the Doric triglyphs may, perhaps, mean 
 passing through the metopes, which seem anciently to 
 have been left vacant, for the purpose of admitting air 
 and light into the building. Orest. 1378. et nd. Schol. 
 * II. vi. 31o. 
 
IN GRECIAlSf ARCHITECTURE. 109 
 
 deed, seems to have composed the main 
 beauty of the Homeric buildings. In 
 imaginary edifices the materials are some- 
 times changed, and we find a profusion 
 of the precious metals employed in their 
 construction ; but this, as I have before 
 observed, is an additional proof of the 
 poverty of the architectural decoration. 
 From the frequent mention of hewn and 
 polished stone in the most costly and 
 magnificent mansions, it would appear 
 that the general practice in the time of 
 Homer himself was confined to the em- 
 ployment of those irregular masses still 
 to be seen in the walls of Tiryns. In the 
 Odyssey, however, amongst the details 
 of the palace of Ulysses, the marks of an 
 age somewhat later are discoverable. 
 
 It is not certain that the author of the 
 Iliad had any knowledge of houses formed 
 in regular divisions of stories. Two pas- 
 
110 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 sages evidently alluding to such build- 
 ings are of doubtful antiquity*; and the 
 true meaning of a third has, I think, been 
 forcibly bent to this interpretation!. In 
 the Odyssey, mention of the upper cham- 
 bers, especially as the residence of wo- 
 men, frequently occurs. 
 
 The use of columns was not unknown 
 to the author of this latter poem, although 
 neither the word itself, nor the thing 
 signified, is to be found in the pages of 
 the Iliad. It may be requisite here to 
 pay some attention to the columns in the 
 palace of Ulysses ; more especially as 
 from a bare allusion to the fact of their 
 existence, it might be thought unjustifia- 
 ble to exclude them from the appellation 
 of architectural ornament. It is first to 
 be observed, that these columns form no 
 part of the exterior building ; their use 
 
 * II. ii. :>1 1. xvi. 184. t II. vi. 248. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. Ill 
 
 is not only confined to the interior, but 
 for any thing that appears to the con- 
 trary, exclusively to the great hall of the 
 palace. Their employment in that situa- 
 tion was obviously dictated by necessity. 
 From the ample space of the apartment, 
 some support, in addition to the lateral 
 walls, was required to give security to 
 the beams which composed the roof; 
 this, security, we may conclude, was ob- 
 tained by the insertion of a row of co- 
 lumns passing longitudinally through the 
 centre of the chamber. It is remarkable, 
 however, that, in the Odyssey, frequent 
 mention is made of the * lofty column,' 
 or the 'great column,' as a single object: 
 indeed if it were not for the passage 
 (xix. 36.) in which the columns are di- 
 stinctly referred to in the plural number, 
 we might almost be tempted to imagine 
 that Homer intended to describe an 
 
112 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 apartment in which the beams of the 
 roof were supported by a single cokmni. 
 Such was the cause and mode of their 
 introduction. According to the general 
 opinion, the material of which they were 
 formed was wood : and the accuracy of 
 this opinion is confirmed by the nature 
 of their origin and use, as well as by 
 a combination of circumstances which 
 unite for this purpose. Throughout the 
 Odyssey the mention of columns is purely 
 incidental : they are never described in 
 detail, nor do they make part of any de- 
 scription of architectural magnificence. 
 Epithets of admiration are frequently 
 bestowed on the w^alls, the doors, the 
 beams and pavement, while the column 
 is never said to be well built, well polish- 
 ed, or aptly proportioned. The height 
 only is occasionally alluded to. This rare 
 and casual mention, and alwavs as a fea- 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 113 
 
 turc of SO little prominence, seems 
 clearly to evince that Homer, at least, 
 never imagined that his palaces would 
 derive additional beauty and splendour 
 from its introduction. 
 
 From these considerations it may be 
 evident that I cannot assent to an 
 ingenious conjecture formed by Mr. 
 Knight, and since frequently repeated, 
 respecting the origin of the fluting in 
 columns. The conjecture is founded 
 on a passage of the Odyssey, in which 
 Minerva, on entering the hall of Ulysses, 
 is said "to place her spear by the tall 
 "column, within the well polished spear- 
 " holder, in which were many others be- 
 " longing to the prudent chief*.'* This 
 
 * Od, i. 127. 
 
 I 
 
114 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 spear-holder has been understood to 
 mean one of the channels of the fluting. 
 The word, however, seems clearly to al- 
 lude to a single and capacious repository 
 of arms adjoining to the column, or con- 
 structed in it. The spears of Ulysses 
 are not said to be ranged around the 
 column, each in its proper spear-holder; 
 one repository only is mentioned, which 
 contained the weapons of the prince ; 
 and in which Minerva placed hers also. 
 It is thus explained by Eustathius, who 
 calls the spear-holder a columnar recep- 
 tacle, or rather one formed in the column 
 itself for the convenience of containing 
 the spears in an upright position *. The 
 illustrations of the word given by Suidas, 
 
 * Eustath. in loc. or* SovooSokt) £<rri ^rjxrj So^oituiv 
 xiovsiiijg r |u,a'A<5-ra s'lgKlova £y"y£yXv(j.£vi) Iv r, tt^og 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 115 
 
 Hesychius, and Pollux*, are perfectly 
 consistent with the interpretation here 
 stated, and p'lwd not the slightest in- 
 timation of an architectural origin. If 
 the true meaning of the passage were 
 less obvious than it really is, however 
 ingenious the conjecture, there would 
 still be strong presumption against its 
 accuracy. That an operose contrivance 
 should have been resorted to for this 
 simple and useful purpose seems so 
 highly improbable, that even if aoypo- 
 AOKH must be considered as connected 
 with, and in a manner almost forming 
 part, of the column itself; yet, by ex- 
 plaining the word to signify some spe- 
 cies of repository, so fixed and fashioned 
 as to receive and support the spears, 
 
 * Suid. in loc, Hesych. in loc. Poll. 1. i. c. 10. 
 1. vii. c. 33. 1. X. c. 33. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 we should surely describe a more na- 
 tural invention than that of twenty chan- 
 nels laboriously cut around it, and which, 
 at the same time, presented a place of 
 deposit for the weapons much less secure 
 and commodious. The very epithet of 
 * well-polished,' or 'well- wrought,' which 
 is applied to the word, is so entirely dis- 
 similar from all those used in other parts 
 of the work in describing the columns, 
 that it must be considered as alluding to 
 something of a more ornamental con- 
 struction, whatever may have been tlie 
 substance of which it was composed*. 
 The spear-holder mentioned in the pas- 
 sage might possibly have been something 
 calculated for the safe preservation of 
 
 ■ * Achilles withdraAvs his spear from the long 
 sheath, or case, {crv^iyyo^) in which it had been pre- 
 served (II. xvi. 387). The Homeric spear was nearly 
 seventeen feet long (II. viii. 494). 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 117 
 
 such weapons as were peculiarly valuable : 
 for, it is manifest, that the usual mode 
 of disposing the spears was not against 
 the columns, from the circumstance of 
 the suitors, when Ulysses begins their 
 destruction by the slaughter of Antinous, 
 looking around for arms — not to the co- 
 lumns, but to the walls of the hall, from 
 whence they had been previously re- 
 moved by Telemachus. 
 
 itdvtoa-s Ttxiiralvovtsg lu Jijjw,tjV8j ttotI TOIXOTE, 
 ov^i TTY} d(rir)s arjV, ovS' dkKii^oy 'EFXOS iXicrSai*. 
 
 A few words remain to be added con- 
 cerning that part of the Homeric build- 
 ings which has usually been called the 
 portico ; an appellation, however, which 
 is very far from affording any just notion 
 of its real nature and appearance. No 
 
 * 0(1. xxii. 23. 
 
118 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 intimation whatever is given that it was 
 constructed with columns, nor from any 
 thing that appears in the pages of the 
 lUad or Odyssey, is there reason to be- 
 lieve that they formed a part of its com- 
 position. A portico without columns 
 cannot be said to suggest ideas of much 
 architectural beauty, and, in fact, the 
 terms employed in its description are 
 not such as to justify a belief that any 
 thins: ornamental was intended to be ex- 
 pressed by them. Twice only is it men- 
 tioned that these porticoes were polished 
 or well wrought; and it is to be observed, 
 that in one instance the divine mansion 
 of Jupiter himself is alluded to ; and in 
 the other the splendid and Asiatic palace 
 of Priam*. The etymologies given of 
 the word aigotsa are by no means satis- 
 factory ; but we may nevertheless collect 
 sufficient from these, as well as from the 
 
 * II. XX. 11. vi. 242. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 119 
 
 text of Homer, to enable us to form 
 a probable conjecture of its description 
 and use. It seems to have been a species 
 of raised platform or exedra, probably 
 covered at the top, but exposed at the 
 sides to the air, and to the enjoyment de- 
 rived from this exposure we may chiefly 
 attribute its origin ; at least this is the 
 purpose to which we find it generally ap- 
 plied, and the most rational explanations 
 of the word justify this supposition*. 
 
 The influence of the same climate, and 
 the pleasure afforded by this practice in 
 all ages to the inhabitants of southern 
 countries, lead us to expect that we 
 should still discover the existence of a 
 similar custom. In this expectation we 
 shall not be disappointed. There is 
 scarcely a house of any magnitude in 
 Greece or Asia-Minor, which does not 
 * Vid. Hesych. iu A<9. 
 
120 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 possess a kind of balcony attached to it, 
 and frequently extending entirely round 
 a court. Whatever may be the grandeur 
 of the mansion, these are always formed 
 of wood, and in a slight manner ; in the 
 day-time they are the resort of those who 
 seek the freshness of the open air ; and 
 at night, being spread with carpets or 
 skins, they become a sleeping place for 
 travellers, especially for those of an in- 
 ferior rank. The AI0OT2A1 of Homer 
 will be found in their use to coincide 
 with this description, and there is no 
 reason to imagine that in their appear- 
 ance they were very dissimilar*. 
 
 * II. xxiv. 644. Od. iii. 399. \-ii. 336. xx. 170.— 
 According to Polliix^ it seems to have been a species 
 of inner court. Onoraast. lib. i, cap. vii. xa» avXrj ro 
 h$oy, YjV ai^ova-av''OiJt,i^^O( xaAsT. — In the Odj'sscy it 
 is said that, in the coui't of Alcinous, while skins and 
 carpets were prepared in the portico for the bed of 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. \2l 
 
 Whatever be the precise date we may 
 assign to the age of Homer, it is cer- 
 tainly to be viewed as nearly contem- 
 poraneous with the occurrence of an 
 event which forms a most important era 
 in the history of Greece. By the return 
 of the Heraclida3 to the Peloponnesus, 
 and the circumstances attendant on the 
 conquest of the peninsula, a change, 
 equally extensive both in the manners 
 and in the political condition of the in- 
 habitants, was effected. Bloody wars, 
 and the conduct of the Dorian invaders, 
 contributed to check the advances which 
 had already been made in refinement, 
 and to plunge the country into a state of 
 comparative ignorance and barbarism. 
 How long these ages of darkness con- 
 tinued it would be difficult with any ac- 
 
 Ulysses, as a stranger, the king himself retired to rest 
 in tlie interior of the palace, ni. 344. 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 curacy to determine ; but, for several 
 centuries after the return of the descend- 
 ants of Hercules, the history of Greece 
 presents nearly a total blank. During 
 the heavy pressure of such causes, the 
 progress of ornamental architecture, we 
 may be certain, as well as of all those arts 
 of civilization which had previously been 
 cultivated with success, was entirely ar- 
 rested. 
 
 In this situation, therefore, it is mani- 
 fest that any inquiry must be fruitless, 
 which has for its object to ascertain in 
 what manner, and at what period, the art 
 became possessed of those characteristics 
 which subsequently distinguished the dif- 
 ferent orders of building. Vitruvius, in 
 the absence of all history or authenticated 
 tradition, recounts a fable respecting their 
 origin, which is utterly incredible, and in 
 itself absurd. He says, that Dorus, the 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 123 
 
 son of Hellen and of the nymph Opticos, 
 built a temple of Juno in Argos, which, 
 by chance, was of the Doric kind, al- 
 though none of the proportions, he adds, 
 w^ere regulated or known at the time. 
 The Ionian colonists on their arrival in 
 Asia, wishing to erect a temple to Apollo- 
 Panionius, and being ignorant of the pro- 
 per method of proceeding, bethought 
 themselves of measuring the human foot, 
 and having discovered that it was about 
 the sixth part of a man's height, they at 
 once adopted this proportion in the co- 
 lumns of the order, which thenceforth 
 they called Doric. At the same time, 
 in building a temple to Diana, the style 
 of which was to receive their own name, 
 they wished to give a female character to 
 the columns employed ; for this purpose 
 their height was increased to eight dia- 
 meters, in order to render their appear- 
 
124 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 ance lighter and more slender. Bases 
 were added instead of slippers, the volutes 
 and ornaments of the capitals resembled 
 the head-dresses of the time, and the 
 manner of fluting the shaft was copied 
 from the folds to be seen in the drapery 
 of the matrons of those days*. It is un- 
 necessary to pause for an instant in the 
 refutation of these dreams. The fact is, 
 that the different modes of building re- 
 ceived their present appellation long 
 after the date of their invention, when- 
 ever that event may have taken place ; 
 and was entirely owing to the continued 
 observation and comparison of the ge- 
 neral practice that obtained in European 
 Greece, with that manner of building 
 which was almost exclusively in use 
 among the Asiatic colonies. It is im- 
 possible, therefore, to attempt to describe 
 * Vitruv. 1. iv. c. 1 . 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 125 
 
 the origin, or to fix the era of this grand 
 distinction, which so early prevailed in 
 the history of the art ; but it is certain 
 that the several Dorian and Ionian states, 
 which composed the great mass of the 
 Greek population, disregarding the love 
 of novelty, as well as the beauty of these 
 respective varieties of architecture, ad- 
 hered wdth a remarkable uniformity each 
 to its favourite style during the lapse of 
 several centuries. Perhaps the most an- 
 cient example of the existence of these 
 two orders is to be found in the account 
 which Pausanias gives of the Sicyonian 
 treasury at Olympia; at least it is the 
 first which is accompanied with the men- 
 tion of any circumstances entitled to be- 
 lief : and even this is not quite satisfac- 
 tory, inasmuch as it appears that the re- 
 spective orders have reference only to 
 interior decoration. The treasury was 
 
I^ THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 built by Myron, the tyrant of Sicyon, in 
 the thirty-third Olympiad, or about six 
 hundred and fifty years before Christ. 
 He made in it two chambers, one Doric, 
 the other Ionic. They were worked with 
 brass. An inscription containing the de- 
 dication to Jupiter, and specifying the 
 weight of the metal, was to be seen in 
 the building*. Whatever may have been 
 the precise nature of the architectural 
 ornaments of the Sicyonian treasury, it 
 is probable that in their general appear- 
 ance they were in conformity with the 
 practice observed in succeeding ages. 
 It is not easy, in the absence of histo- 
 
 * Pausan. El. post. c. 19. — The story of Acrisius 
 and the brazen chamber of Danae, there is little 
 doubt, refers to a building similar to these treasuries, 
 the interior of which was covered with brass. (Pau- 
 san. Cor. 23.) It has already been said that the in- 
 dications of the plates of this metal, in the treasury of 
 Atreus, are clearly apparent. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 127 
 
 rical information, to assign with any cer- 
 tainty their true dates to the buildings 
 of antiquity, or from the pecuharity of 
 their remains to fix the period of their 
 construction. The remarkable similarity 
 of manner which prevailed throughout 
 Greece for so many ages is the chief 
 cause of this difficulty. Unlike the gra- 
 dual progress of Gothic architecture, in 
 which the regular variation of style and 
 ornament furnish conclusive evidence of 
 the era of the work, the buildings of 
 Greece generally preserved the same 
 uniformity of design and chaste simpli- 
 city of execution ; the changes which 
 have taken place in the Grecian orders, 
 and the differences which exist, are nearly 
 confined to the details of the art, and in 
 many instances are scarcely perceptible 
 to the common observer. It is unneces- 
 sary to undertake any technical descrip- 
 
128 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 tion of these minute varieties : our pre- 
 sent purpose will be sufficiently answered 
 by a general notice of the more con- 
 spicuous edifices of Greece, the remains 
 of which still exist j with a reference to 
 the writings of those authors by whom 
 they have been most accurately mea- 
 sured and delineated. 
 
 As the DORIC style continued, with few 
 exceptions, to be generally adhered to by 
 the European states of Greece until the 
 time of the Roman conquest, the ex- 
 amples still remaining are numerous. 
 One of the most ancient is to be found 
 in the temple of Jupiter Panhellenius in 
 ^gina. It is said by Pausanias to have 
 been built by -^acus considerably before 
 the Trojan war ; a story wholly incredi- 
 ble, but which serves to prove that it had 
 outlived all tradition of its real origin. 
 It is still nearly entire, and the position 
 
IN ORECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 129 
 
 it occupies is very striking, being placed 
 on the summit of the highest mountain 
 in the island, and commanding a most 
 beautiful prospect of the surrounding sea 
 and land*. 
 
 The site of the temple of Jupiter at 
 
 * Pausan. Cor. c. 30. Ionian Antiq. vol. ii. — An 
 interesting discovery has lately been made among the 
 ruins of this building ; a large portion of the statues 
 that formerly occupied both pediments of the temple 
 has been recovered, by removing little more than the 
 surface of the earth immediately beneath them. This 
 sculpture, although, probably, not coeval with the 
 temple itself, is undoubtedly of high antiquity. The 
 style of work conclusively denotes a period at least 
 as early as the Persian invasion ; and, indeed, im- 
 mediately after that event, the state of JEgina, under- 
 went such an entire change, that even if the mode of 
 sculpture were less decisive than it really is, we could 
 scarcely refer to any subsequent age, the execution of 
 a monument of this description. These remains, so 
 important with a view to illustrate the progress of 
 sculpture, are now in the royal collection of Munich. 
 
 K 
 
130 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 Olympia has been recently ascertained : 
 some vestiges of this celebrated edifice 
 are yet to be discerned on the banks of 
 the Alpheus. The excavations performed 
 by the inhabitants of the neighbouring 
 villages in order to procure stone and mar- 
 ble for their own purposes, have in great 
 measure laid open the ground plan of the 
 temple, together with the lower part of 
 some of the columns. The description 
 of Pausanias is minutely accurate. It 
 was built of stone, and covered with a 
 marble roof, cut in imitation of tiles, an 
 invention which has been thought of 
 sufficient merit to preserve the name of 
 its author*. The architect of the temple 
 itself was named Libon, of whom we hear 
 nothing elsewhere ; but the age of the 
 building may probably be carried as high 
 
 * Pausan. El, prior, c. 1 0. Byzes of Naxos, who 
 lived about the fortieth Olympiad. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 131 
 
 as six hundred years before the Christian 
 era *. 
 
 In mentioning the earUest monuments 
 of Grecian architecture, it is impossible 
 to excUide the remains of a Doric temple 
 at Corinth, consisting of five stone co- 
 lumns, which still support their archi- 
 trave. It has been supposed that this 
 temple was dedicated to Venus ; but, in 
 fact, no information is to be obtained 
 respecting its origin. Whatever may 
 have been its destination, no one can 
 doubt, from the appearance of the ruins 
 alone, that they formed part of a structure 
 of the most remote antiquity f . 
 
 Although it be not more easy to fix with 
 any precision the periods at which the 
 Grecian temples in Sicily were erected, 
 
 ♦ Pausan. El. prior, c. 10. Strab. lib. viii. 355. 
 For some measurements, see Antiq. of Magna Grsecia. 
 f Stuart's Athens, vol. iii. c. 5. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 there are certain historical facts which 
 may guide us in an attempt to ascertain 
 the Hmits of the time within which it 
 must have taken pLace, and by which we 
 may be enabled, if not accurately to ve- 
 rify, at least to approximate to tlie dates 
 of these different buildings. 
 
 The city of Selinus, whose stupendous 
 ruins are the admiration of modern times, 
 was founded by a Greek colony from 
 Megara, six hundred and fifty years be- 
 fore Christ ; and destroyed in the inva- 
 sion of the Carthaginians, two hundred 
 and fifty years after its foundation. From 
 the testimony of historians it appears, 
 that on this occasion the temples were 
 spared, as in a second invasion their de- 
 struction is mentioned. It is clear, there- 
 fore, that they were in existence four 
 hundred years before our era. If we 
 consider the number and magnitude of 
 
IN GRECIAX ARCHITECTURE. 133 
 
 tlie buildings, it will not be thought too 
 great a concession to admit, that some 
 among tliem at least were begun a cen- 
 tury before this period, or about five 
 hundred years before the birth of Christ: 
 it is even probable that the Greek colo- 
 nists would not suffer the space of one 
 hundred and fifty years to elapse before 
 they employed themselves in the per- 
 formance of a duty which with them 
 seems to have been generally paramount 
 to all others. By what means, and under 
 what circumstances, the magnificent edi- 
 fices of Selinus w^ere raised, we are entirely 
 ignorant ; their appearance strongly in- 
 dicates the existence of wealth and power, 
 but the history of the state is nearly com- 
 prised in the bare record of its founda- 
 tion and destruction*. 
 
 The Corinthian colony which esta- 
 * Autiq. of Magna Graecia, c. 4. 
 
134 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 blished itself in Sicily is said to have 
 taken possession of Syracuse so early as 
 the middle of the eighth century before 
 Christ. The details of the history of 
 this city offer no means of determining 
 the time at which the first temples were 
 erected : if we reflect, however, within 
 how short a period after the migration of 
 the Corinthians the country became an 
 object of the greatest desire to the Car- 
 thaginians, it does not seem improbable 
 that its riches and splendour should have 
 been of rapid growth. The remains of 
 the temple of Minerva situated in Orty- 
 gia, that part of the city which was first 
 inhabited, bear every mark of tlie highest 
 antiquity *. 
 
 The temples of Agrigentum, nume- 
 rous and costly as they aret, appear to 
 
 * Anti(|. of Magna Graecia, c. 2. 
 I Ibid. c. 3. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 135 
 
 have arisen during little more than a 
 single century. The prosperity and in- 
 dependence of the city commenced with 
 Theron about four hundred and fifty 
 years before Christ ; after the battle 
 of Himera his thoughts were entirely 
 turned to its decoration, and the Car- 
 thaginian prisoners were made to assist 
 by their labour in the erection of tro- 
 phies to perpetuate the glory of their 
 conquerors. The Agrigentines conti- 
 nued in this employment until a second 
 and more successful invasion of the Car- 
 thaginians found them occupied in com- 
 pleting the temple of Jupiter Olympius, 
 the greatest in the island, and one of 
 the most stupendous monuments of an- 
 cient times. The capture of the city by 
 Hamilcar in the ninety-third Olympiad 
 prevented its completion, and according 
 to Diodorus it continued ever afterwards 
 
136 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 in the same unfinished state*. We may 
 perhaps be enabled to form a more 
 lively conception of what must have 
 been the astonishing magnitude of the 
 whole of this structure, from the manner 
 in which some of its parts have been de- 
 scribed ; and we are furnished with an 
 adequate scale by which to estimate this 
 magnitude, when we are informed that 
 in the fluted columns, each channel, 
 which, as my friend Mr. Knight con- 
 tends, was originally invented for the 
 purpose of holding a spear, was suf- 
 ficiently capacious to contain with ease 
 the body of a man. The wrecks of this 
 mighty undertaking — the * mirabilis aula 
 gigantum' — at first sight scarcely exhibit 
 any traces of art ; but rather present the 
 appearance of huge fragments of rock in 
 
 * Diodor. lib. xiii. 82. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 137 
 
 a natural state, although incrusted with 
 vegetation, and worn by time and acci- 
 dent. But on a closer inspection their 
 former character is discovered, and they 
 satisfactorily prove that the historian in 
 his description has been guilty of no ex- 
 aggeration. Although the vestiges be 
 few which remain of this wonderful 
 work, the temples of Peace and of Con- 
 cord still attest the ancient magnificence 
 of Agrigentum ; and as they are among 
 the most beautiful, so they are fortu- 
 nately among the most perfectly pre- 
 served of the remains of antiquity. 
 
 The history of Paestum is barren of 
 incident, but some important facts are 
 authenticated, which serve in a consi- 
 derable degree to fix the age of the 
 great hypaethral temple, if not of the 
 other buildings, which still remain within 
 the walls. The original inhabitants of 
 
138 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 the city were dispossessed by the Syba- 
 rites, who quietly enjoyed the fruits of 
 their conquest for more than two hun- 
 dred years*. The first hostile attack 
 seems to have been made by Dionysius ; 
 who, although he retired into Sicily 
 without achieving his object, yet left 
 the state so enfeebled that it shortly 
 after fell into the hands of his Lucanian 
 allies. This happened nearly three hun- 
 dred and fifty years before the Christian 
 era. In the course of about seventy 
 years more it yielded to the growing 
 power of Rome, became a municipal 
 town of the empire, and received a 
 Roman colony t. There can be little 
 doubt that we ought to date the con- 
 struction of the great temple during the 
 time in which the city remained under 
 the dominion of the settlement from Sy- 
 
 * Strab. lib. v. p. 2.j1. f Veil. i. 14. 
 
 I 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 139 
 
 baris. The marks of ancient Grecian 
 art are indelible; yet, even if the Lu- 
 canians possessed skill and taste suf- 
 ficient, they wanted the ease and leisure 
 and security requisite for so considerable 
 an undertaking. How far we ought to 
 attribute the construction of the other 
 remains at Paestum to the Lucanians, 
 or to the Roman colonists, it is unne- 
 cessary at present to inquire ; the origin 
 and antiquity of the hypaethral temple, 
 at least, are clearly ascertained*. The 
 principal buildings of Sicily and of Mag- 
 na Graecia, still existing in our time, may 
 probably be classed in the following 
 chronological order — Syracuse, Pses- 
 tum, Selinus, Segesta, and Agrigentum. 
 In quitting these monuments, I cannot 
 but observe that an attempt to trace the 
 history and progressive improvement of 
 * Autiq. of Magna Graecia, c. 6. 
 
140 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 the Greek states of Sicily and of Italy, 
 especially of the latter, — to inquire into 
 the sources of their astonishing wealth 
 and power, would be an interesting and 
 valuable work. The materials, it is true, 
 are widely dispersed, and perhaps are 
 not ample, but the field is yet un- 
 trodden. 
 
 Immediately next to these in the re- 
 lation of time, but in real grandeur and 
 beauty to be classed above all the archi- 
 tectural efforts of ancient or modern 
 times, come the Athenian temples. 
 Here we may pause on the full per- 
 fection of the art ; after this period no- 
 thing was added ; perhaps in the course 
 of a few years its gradual decline com- 
 menced. AVe have no difficulty in ac- 
 curately fixing the dates of these build- 
 ings. Mnesicles began the Propylea in 
 the eighty-fifth Olympiad, and it was 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 141 
 
 completed at a vast expense in the short 
 space of five years. It formed at once 
 a most magnificent entrance to the Athe- 
 nian AcropoHs, and exhibited a fine spe- 
 cimen of the miHtary architecture of the 
 age. In addition to the Doric portico 
 in front, the roof of the vestibule itself 
 was supported within by two rows of 
 Ionic columns, of which the bases still 
 remain. The object of their introduc- 
 tion was to obtain an increased height 
 for the roof, which the received pro- 
 portions of this order permitted. Thus 
 the summits of the Ionic capitals on 
 which the marble beams of the roof 
 rested, were on a level with the exterior 
 frieze of the building, or about five feet 
 higher than the Doric architrave*. The 
 Parthenon was built by Ictinus a few 
 
 * Stuart's Athens, vol. ii. c. 5. 
 
142 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 years later, and, as well as the Propylea, 
 during the time in which Pericles ex- 
 ercised unlimited control in the ma- 
 nagement of public affairs, and when his 
 popularity had left him without a rival 
 in Athens. They were both raised un- 
 der the direction of Phidias, to whose 
 superintendance this munificent states- 
 man committed the execution of all his 
 plans of taste and elegance. It would 
 be superfluous to expatiate on the beau- 
 ties of the Parthenon, which are so well 
 known, and have been so often de- 
 scribed. In the majestic simplicity of 
 its general design ; the grandeur of its 
 proportions ; and the exquisite taste and 
 skill displayed in the execution of its or- 
 namental parts, it is undoubtedly the most 
 perfect, as well as deservedly the most 
 celebrated production of Grecian art*. 
 
 * Stuart's Athens, v(»l. ii. c. I . 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 143 
 
 The temple of Theseus may be consi- 
 dered as nearly coeval with the buildings 
 of the Acropolis, or perhaps of a some- 
 what earlier origin. If we suppose this 
 splendid monument of Athenian archi- 
 tecture to have been destined for the re- 
 ception of the ashes of their national 
 hero, its commencement ought to be 
 placed soon after his remains were 
 transported from Scyros to Athens, and 
 when funeral games were instituted in his 
 honour. The expedition of Cimon, the 
 son of Miltiades, was forty years prior 
 to the time in which Pericles possessed 
 that influence which enabled him to ap- 
 ply the resources of the republic to these 
 purposes of magnificence *. The striking 
 remains of the temple of Minerva, on the 
 
 * Plut. iu vit. Pericl. Pausan. Attic, c. 1/. Plut, 
 in vit. Cimon. Stuart's Athens, vol. ii. iii. 
 
144 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 promontory of Suniiim, are in all proba- 
 bility to be attributed to the same au- 
 thors; but one of the noblest efforts of 
 the genius of Ictinus is to be seen in the 
 temple of Apollo Epicurius in Arcadia, 
 which although still nearly entire, has 
 been little explored or even visited*. 
 It offers many architectural peculiarities, 
 and exhibits a greater variety in its de- 
 tails than we usually meet with in Gre- 
 cian buildings. The front consists of 
 six columns, but there are fifteen in each 
 flank, contrary to the general practice, 
 which would have prescribed thirteen. 
 A species of buttress, six on each side, 
 and at intervals of five feet, projected 
 internally from the walls of the cell, and 
 
 * Pausan. A read. 41. 
 
 For some measurements and peculiarities, see 
 Antiq. of Magna Grsecia. Appendix. 
 
 I 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 145 
 
 terminated in a semicircular pilaster of 
 the Ionic order. This peculiarity did 
 not originate merely in the desire of or- 
 nament, but as the temple was not hy- 
 paethral, must have had for its object 
 the more effectual support of the roof, 
 which is said by Pausanias to have been 
 of stone. According to the testimony of 
 ancient writers, it surpassed in beauty all 
 the other buildings of the Peloponnesus, 
 with the single exception of the temple 
 of Minerva at Tegea. It is situated on 
 an elevated part of mount Cotylus, three 
 or four miles from the ruins of Phigalia, 
 and commands one of the most enchant- 
 ing prospects which it is possible to con- 
 ceive ; — woods, hills, and valleys lie be- 
 fore it in wild confusion ; the distance is 
 terminated by the sea, and the venerable 
 oaks with which the temple itself is sur- 
 
 L 
 
146 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 rounded, confer an additional solemnity 
 and grandeur on the scene*. 
 
 Sixty years after the deatli of Pericles, 
 in the hundred and second Olympiad, 
 Epaminondas having broken the power 
 of Lace daemon, restored the Messenians 
 to independence, and built the city of 
 Messene. From the extensive ruins 
 which are still visible of the various 
 public edifices, it does not appear that 
 the art had yet suffered any material de- 
 terioration t. The walls of the city merit 
 
 * A discovery, similar to that at iEgina, has beeu 
 made among the ruins of the temple of Apollo ; and 
 in this instance there is no reason to doubt that the 
 sculpture is coeval with the building itself. These 
 valuable fragments have been recently added to the 
 collection of Greek antiquities deposited in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 f Diod. Sic. lib. xv. HG. Pausan. McvSsen. c. 27. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 147 
 
 particular attention. In many parts they 
 are still entire, and are to be traced 
 throughout the whole extent of their an- 
 cient circuit. They present the most 
 beautiful and perfect specimen of the 
 military architecture of the Greeks, be- 
 ing fortified and adorned with numerous 
 towers and gates. They are described 
 by Pausanias as superior to the walls of 
 Byzantium and Rhodes, and indeed to 
 all that he had seen*. It is to be la- 
 mented, that no traveller or artist has as 
 yet given us any accurate details of these 
 most interesting remains. 
 
 In a very short time, however, the 
 order was destined to experience a con- 
 siderable change, at least if we may 
 judge from the proportions of the por- 
 tico in the island of Delos, on which 
 is inscribed the name of Philip of Ma- 
 * Messen. c. 31. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 cedon*. This building could not have 
 been erected after the hundred and 
 tenth Olympiad, the last year of which 
 was marked by the assassination of that 
 prince. After this period the Doric order 
 gradually fell into disuse, and was at first 
 nearly superseded by the Ionic, and idti- 
 mately by the Corinthian style of ar- 
 chitecture. The catalogue may there- 
 fore be closed with the mention of the 
 portico of Augustus at Athens, which is, 
 I believe, the most recent structure of 
 this description now existing in Greece f. 
 Having briefly enumerated some of the 
 principal Doric remains, which in spite 
 of the lapse of time, the fury of religious 
 zeal, and the barbarism of conquerors, 
 
 * Stuart's Athens, vol, iii. c. 10. Tournefort, 
 t. i. lett. 7. 
 
 f Stuart's Athens, vol. i. c. 1. This building is 
 conjectured to have been an entrance to the Agora. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 149 
 
 are still permitted to attest the magni- 
 ficence and taste of the country which 
 produced them ; it may not perhaps be 
 uninteresting or useless if we attempt to 
 inquire into the indications of their com- 
 parative antiquity, and to ascertain what 
 are the peculiarities which may enable 
 us to fix with some degree of probability 
 the respective dates of buildings not de- 
 scribed by ancient writers, and of which 
 the origin is entirely unknown. 
 
 A reference to the different proportions 
 of the columns and their entablature has 
 been supposed to afford a criterion of the 
 antiquity of the edifice. Columns, in the 
 earliest ages, are said to have been in- 
 variably low, and their entablatures mas- 
 sive ; but as the art advanced, the enta- 
 blature, it is affirmed, gradually diminish- 
 ed, and the columns became more lofty 
 and slender. This observation may be 
 
150 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 of great service in determining the age 
 of Grecian monuments, but although it 
 ought always to be kept in view, we 
 should not be justified in its universal 
 application. Pliny says, that according 
 to the most ancient method, the columns 
 were only a third part of the height of 
 the whole building*. It is likely that in 
 the infancy of the art an appearance of 
 this kind should have been produced by 
 a general desire to obtain strength, and 
 from an ignorance of the weight w^hich 
 might with safety be placed on a vertical 
 shaft: but the fact is, that several remains 
 of the highest antiquity form exceptions 
 to these rules. There are, however, other 
 peculiarities which may furnish material 
 assistance in this inquiry; the most pro- 
 minent of which is the depth of the capi- 
 tal compared with the upper diameter of 
 * Pliii. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvi. c. 22. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 151 
 
 the column. When this is found to vary 
 in the same proportion with the parts 
 ah'eady described, the test acquires an 
 additional confirmation. To see how 
 nearly the chronological order I have as- 
 sumed is borne out by the comparative 
 lowness of the columns, and the depth of 
 their capitals, let us take a number of ex- 
 amples from the temples to which I have 
 alluded, and first arrange them according 
 to the proportion of the diameter com- 
 pared with their height ; and then accord- 
 ing to the depth of the capitals compared 
 with the upper diameter of the column. 
 The first scale shows how many times 
 the lower diameter is contained in the 
 height of the column, the second denotes 
 the proportion of the depth of the ca- 
 pitals to the upper diameter, in decimals. 
 It will be seen, from the relative pro- 
 portions, that both scales distinguish, by 
 
152 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 a marked difference, the temples of Sicily 
 
 from 1 
 
 hood. 
 
 from those of Athens and its neighbour 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Hexastyle at Selinus 4.339 
 
 Minerva at Syracuse 4.410 
 
 Octastyle at Selinus 4.478 
 
 Juno at Agrigentum 4.695 
 Concord at Agrigentum 4.807 
 
 Parthenon at Athens 5.566 
 
 Theseus at Athens 5.669 
 
 Propylea at Athens 5.764 
 
 Minerva at Sunium 5.899 
 
 Portico of Augustus 6.042 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Juno at Agrigentum .639 
 
 Hexastyle at Selinus .637 
 
 Minerva at Syracuse .636 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 153 
 
 Concord at Agrigentum .634 
 
 Octastyle at Selinus .603 
 
 Theseus at Athens .508 
 
 Parthenon at Athens .477 
 
 Propylea at Athens .470 
 
 Minerva at Sunium .458 
 
 Portico of Augustus .408 
 
 An indication of comparative anti- 
 quity is to be remarked in the projection 
 of the architrave. In the more recent 
 of Grecian buildings, and in Roman ex- 
 amples, the face of the architrave is 
 always in the same line with the upper 
 part of the shaft of the column, while in 
 the earliest remains, as well as in all those 
 of the best ages of the art, it projects so 
 much as nearly to coincide with a line 
 drawn perpendicularly from the base. 
 This projection is not always found to be 
 augmented precisely in proportion to the 
 
154 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 antiquity of the building ; but it is a fea- 
 ture which recurs so constantly under 
 similar circumstances, as to deserve much 
 notice in an inquiry respecting the age 
 of any specimen of Doric architecture ; 
 for it is to be observed that these pecu- 
 liarities do not extend to the Ionic and 
 Corinthian styles. I am not aware of the 
 existence of any Doric building, known 
 to be of comparatively recent date, in 
 which the architrave projects beyond the 
 line of the hypotrachelium ; and on the 
 whole, it appears to have acquired this 
 relative position very gradually, and to 
 have retained it probably from about the 
 period of the Macedonian conquest. 
 
 There are other signs which mark the 
 antiquity of columns, one of which are 
 the three grooves sometimes found at the 
 hypotrachelium, or necking of the shaft. 
 Although these do not occur in every 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 155 
 
 example of the earliest temples, they are 
 never to be discerned in those of later 
 date ; and when inserted, may invariably 
 be considered as the work of a remote 
 age. Another proof is to be met with in 
 the form of the guttae, or drops, below 
 the triglyphs. These in the most ancient 
 specimens are frequently deep, and, ex- 
 cepting the temple at Pagstum, in which 
 they are conical, of a cylindrical shape. 
 In the more modern instances they are 
 comparatively little in depth, and ge- 
 nerally trochoidal, or pulley-formed. 
 
 The Doric columns of the Greeks have 
 always been supposed to diminish gra- 
 dually in their diameter from the base 
 to the summit of the shaft ; and, cor- 
 rectly speaking, to form the figure of a 
 truncated cone, from which figure, in- 
 deed, it is scarcely possible for the eye 
 alone to detect the slightest deviation. 
 
156 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 The minute attention and laborious exa- 
 mination bestowed by Stuart and others 
 on the Athenian temples, with their de- 
 tailed measurements, had confirmed the 
 accuracy of this belief: but the circum- 
 stance was remarkable, because Vitruvius 
 not only mentions the htxTii, or swelling 
 in the shafts of columns, but professes 
 to give directions by which it is to be 
 formed and regulated*. An able and 
 ingenious artist has recently discovered 
 that this entasis does really exist in the 
 columns of the Parthenon, as well as in 
 others of the best ages of the art in 
 Greece "j". It is found in these examples 
 
 * Vitruv. de Architect. 1. 3. c. 2. 
 
 f Mr. C. R. Cockerel!, who, notwithstanding the 
 liberality of his coninmnicatious to his friends, and 
 to the lovers of the art, has too long withheld from 
 the public his many interesting and valuable dis- 
 coveries connected with Grecian architecture. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 157 
 
 to be executed very much in the manner 
 prescribed by Vitruvius ; — as a gradual 
 addition to the diameter of the shaft j 
 the greatest deviation from a right line 
 drawn from the base to the capital being 
 at a certain point about the middle of its 
 height ; but the diameter of the whole 
 column being at no part so great as at 
 the base. This line, therefore, forms the 
 portion of a circle ; although in some 
 more recent instances it would appear 
 more nearly to describe the parabolic 
 curve. Notwithstanding this peculiarity 
 of form has been discovered with so much 
 difficulty, and is in fact scarcely distin- 
 guishable, there is no doubt that it was 
 thought to be important in its general 
 effect, and was adopted after a profound 
 consideration of the subject. It is a 
 proof of the highly refined and delicate 
 perception of the Greeks; for Vitruvius 
 
158 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 explains the principle of its adoption 
 when he states that in columns of the 
 same proportions, the apparent diminu- 
 tion of the diameter is always greater 
 according to their respective height ; 
 and that this deception of the sight is 
 to be corrected by the science of the 
 artist. In order, therefore, to produce 
 the desired effect on the eye, he directs 
 that the diameter of the upper part 
 of the shaft, in a column fifteen feet 
 high, should be one-sixth less than its 
 magnitude at the base ; but that in one 
 of fifty feet the diminution should not 
 be more than one-eighth. For the same 
 reason, he observes that the angular co- 
 lumns of porticoes should have a fiftieth 
 part added to their diameter, compared 
 with that of the intermediate columns, 
 because they would otherwise appear to 
 be somewhat more slender inconsequence 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 159 
 
 of their being placed in a stronger and 
 more equal light. This is what the Italian 
 architects mean when they say, la grand* 
 aria mangia. How far the variations of 
 the entasis might lead to a conjecture 
 respecting the age of the building, I am 
 not prepared to state ; but from the fact 
 of some of the most ancient columns 
 being entirely without it, while in others 
 comparatively recent it is much enlarged, 
 there appears to be some probability of 
 its affording a valuable indication of their 
 date. 
 
 The invention of the Ionic order of 
 architecture appears to have been coeval 
 .with that which prevailed in European 
 Greece ; and although chiefly confined 
 at first to the Asiatic states, it became in 
 the progress of time more generally at- 
 tractive than the severe beauties of the 
 rival style. The earliest specimen, of 
 
160 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 which any remains are to be found, is 
 the celebrated temple of Juno at Samos; 
 which, in the age of Herodotus, w^as con- 
 sidered as the largest and most stupend- 
 ous edifice ev'er raised by Grecian art. 
 This interesting ruin, although often vi- 
 sited, has never until recently received 
 any architectural elucidation. From its 
 proximity to the sea-shore a great pro- 
 portion of the materials has been re- 
 moved for various purposes : neverthe- 
 less the accretion of sand and earth about 
 the site of the temple being very con- 
 siderable, a judicious excavation has been 
 repaid by the discovery of several curious 
 particulars*. It was built about the six- 
 tieth Olympiad, by Rhgecus and Theo- 
 dorus, two natives of the island ; and the 
 
 * Ionian Antiq. vol. i. c. 5, 2(1 edit. Pococke's 
 Travels, vol. iii. book i. cli. 7- Tournefort, t. i. 
 lett. 10. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 161 
 
 style, possessing many peculiarities, is 
 such as strongly to denote its archaic 
 origin*. The bases of the columns are 
 remarkable from the number and com- 
 plication of their parts ; the shaft is not 
 fluted, nor is there any appearance of 
 volutes to the capitals. Perhaps the most 
 ancient examples of this species of orna- 
 ment, which subsequently became the 
 distinguishing characteristic of the or- 
 der, are to be discovered on the coins of 
 different Greek cities, as well as in the 
 figures delineated on earthen vases, 
 among which an altar, or capital of this 
 description, is not unfrequently repre- 
 sented. 
 
 The next building is the tomb of The- 
 ron at Agrigentum, a strange mixture of 
 the two orders -, as Ionic columns with 
 their capitals, are surmounted by a Doric 
 
 * Herod, lib. iii. c. 60. 
 
16^ THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 entablature. I do not know that there 
 is any good reason to doubt the antiquity 
 of this monument, or the truth of the ap- 
 pellation which it has received ; although 
 it must be confessed that some of its de- 
 tails a little partake of the features of 
 a style comparatively modern. Theron 
 died in the seventy-seventh Olympiad ; 
 and eighty years afterwards, Hannibal, 
 in order to facilitate the approach of the 
 Carthaginian army, ordered the tombs 
 situated without the walls of the city to 
 be destroyed : that of Theron being 
 struck by lightning, was spared by the 
 besiegers. The building in question is 
 placed on that side of the town where 
 alone it is accessible to a hostile force*. 
 The octastyle temple of Bacchus at 
 Teos is a heap of ruins, but enough re- 
 
 * Diod. Sic. lib. xi. 53. xiii. 86. Antiq. of Magna 
 Graecia, c. 3. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 163 
 
 mains to attest the exquisite beauty of 
 the ancient edifice, and fully to justify 
 the praises lavished by Vitruvius on the 
 architect, Hermogenes of Alabanda. This 
 artist seems to have effected a consider- 
 able change in the taste of his age, by 
 maintaining, with some others of equal 
 merit, that the Doric order was unfit for 
 temples. He was so deeply impressed 
 with the truth of this notion, that he is 
 said to have exchanged the materials 
 which had been prepared for the con- 
 struction of the Teian temple, in order 
 that he might be enabled to complete the 
 work in the Ionic style. This splendid 
 edifice was probably raised soon after the 
 Persian invasion, for Xerxes destroyed 
 all the sacred buildings of the Ionian 
 cities, with the exception of Ephesus*; 
 and as Hermogenes invented the pseudo- 
 
 * Strabo, lib. xiv. p. 910, ed. Oxon. 
 
 M ^ 
 
1(J4 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 dipteral species of temple, he could not 
 have flourished later than the eighty- 
 eighth Olympiad, when other buildings 
 of this kind are known to have existed*. 
 It is difficult to ascertain the age of 
 the celebrated double temple at Athens, 
 of the Ionic order. From the earliest 
 times a building dedicated to Minerva- 
 
 * Vitruv. lib. iii. c. 2. iv. c. 3. Ionian Antiq. vol. 
 i. c. 1. — From Herodotus it would appear that Da- 
 rius, and not Xerxes, destroyed the Ionian temples 
 in consequence of the revolt of Histieus, lib. vi. c. 32. 
 This author makes no mention of the temple of Ephe- 
 sus, but states that the temple of Juno at Samos was 
 spared in consideration of the conduct of the Saniian 
 fleet at the battle of Lada, lib. vi. c. 25. Although 
 the authority of Strabo is highly respectable, perhaps 
 the account of Herodotus is more probable; it is 
 certainly more consistent with the situation of the 
 Ionian states during the reign of these princes. In 
 either case, the date assigned to the age of Hermo- 
 ^enes is not materially affected. 
 
 I 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 165 
 
 Polias and to Erectheus, appears to have 
 been an object of the highest veneration 
 among the Athenians. It is probable, 
 that in some cases the more modern edi- 
 fice may have been confounded with that 
 by which it was preceded. The ancient 
 temple was to a certain extent destroyed 
 by Xerxes, and we are not informed that 
 the present building was restored by Peri- 
 cles. Xenophon mentions the destruc- 
 tion of the old temple of Minerva by fire 
 in the archonship of Callias, in the ninety- 
 third Olympiad, from which period to the 
 conclusion of the Peloponnesian war we 
 have the time requisite for the completion 
 of the new structure*. This agrees suf- 
 ficiently witli the very curious architec- 
 tural inscription brought from Athens by 
 Dr. Chandler, which describes the un- 
 finished state of the temple, and gives 
 
 * Hellen. lib. 1. c.6.— o HAAAIOS r-^s 'A^rjvas 
 
 yew J £V 'A^r^vaif IfSTTfTjo-^ij. 
 
166 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 the measurement of its various mem- 
 bers*; for that this interesting document 
 relates to the building in question, it 
 is impossible to doubt. It must be ob- 
 served, however, that this official account 
 appears to have been taken in the archon- 
 ship of Diodes, and therefore in the 
 
 * Chandler. Inscript. Antlq. — Although the form 
 of the letters, and general orthography of the inscrip- 
 tion, are apparently much more ancient than the 
 date above mentioned, this is to be attributed to an 
 affectation of archaism not unfrequent among the 
 Athenians. It is generally to be observed in the 
 legends of their coins, and especially of their tetra- 
 drachms. Numerous inscriptions discovered in the 
 country likewise attest the fact. A remarkable in- 
 stance of this archaic language is to be seen in a 
 marble of the Elgin collection in the British Museum, 
 containing an epitaph on the Athenian soldiers who 
 fell at the siege of Potidaea, and the age of which, 
 therefore, cannot be liable to uncertainty. Dr. Chand- 
 ler's inscription lias recently received additional illus- 
 tration from a communication by Mr. Wilkins inserted 
 in Walpole's Journals of Travels in the Levant. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 167 
 
 ninety-second Olympiad, which gives 
 rise to some difficulty ; because, accord- 
 ing to Xenophon, the fire happened just 
 at this period, or rather three years sub- 
 sequent to it. But we can scarcely sup- 
 pose that the historian alludes to the 
 building now under our notice, and not 
 to the older temple, as it remained after 
 the Persian invasion ; more particularly 
 as he specifies its antiquity ; w hereas, at 
 the commencement of Dr. Chandler's in- 
 scription, this temple is merely described 
 as that which contained the ancient statue 
 of the goddess. Whatever be the precise 
 date of its erection, it will for ever be 
 considered as the most perfect specimen 
 of the style in which it is constructed ; 
 and being fortunately preserved nearly 
 entire, may serve as a model for the study 
 and imitation of all succeeding artists. 
 The contemporary record furnishes us 
 
I 
 
 168 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 with the name of the architect, Philocles 
 of Acharnge, of whom nothing further is 
 known ; for although the edifice itself 
 bears ample testimony to his excellence, 
 I am not aware of his having been ever 
 mentioned in the text of any ancient 
 author, and I believe that we are in- 
 debted to the discovery of this valuable 
 inscription for the bare knowledge of his 
 existence. 
 
 The superb temple of Apollo-Didy- 
 miEus, near Miletus, it is reasonable to 
 suppose, was not built before the hun- 
 dredth Olympiad. The architects, ac- 
 cording to Vitruvius, were Peonius of 
 Ephesus, and Daphnis of Miletus ; and 
 as the first of these is said to have finished 
 the celebrated temple of Diana, which 
 was destroyed on the night of the birth 
 of Alexander, we are enabled to fix 
 its real age with considerable accuracy. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 169 
 
 Three columns entire, and a profusion 
 of marble fragments scattered around, 
 are all that remain of this once magni- 
 ficent edifice ; but these are of a de- 
 scription amply sufficient to indicate its 
 former beauty and grandeur, even if 
 they had not been so highly extolled by 
 the uniform voice of antiquity*. 
 
 No doubt is left of the origin of the 
 temple at Priene, as the dedication of 
 the building to Minerva- Polias by Alex- 
 ander of Macedon, remains inscribed on 
 a fragment of the walls. The architect 
 was Pytheus, or, as he is sometimes 
 called, Phileos : he joined with Hermo- 
 genes in his proscription of the Doric 
 stylet. 
 
 From this period to the Roman con- 
 
 * Strab. lib. xiv. p. 634;. Pausau. Ach. c. 5. Ionian 
 Antiq. vol. i. c. 3. 
 
 t Vitruv. lib. i. c. 1 . Proem, lib. vii. 
 
170 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 quest we have no existing specimens of 
 the order, at least none of which the age 
 is in any degree certain. Little archi- 
 tectural information can be collected 
 from the scattered vestiges of the Ionic 
 temple of the Syrian goddess at Hiera- 
 polis, built by Seleucus ; for, although 
 extensive, they furnish no specimens of 
 former beauty and magnificence*. 
 
 The grand and impressive remains of 
 an edifice of the Ionic order are to be seen 
 at Sardis. It has been rarely visited, and, 
 as far as I know, never described. Five 
 entire columns are situated on the banks 
 of the Pactolus ; and the materials of the 
 whole building are heaped around. The 
 diameter of the columns is not less than 
 six feet, from which some notion may be 
 formed of the vast dimensions of this 
 
 * Lucian de Syr. Dea. 30. Pococke's Travels, 
 vol. i. lib. ii. c. IS. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 171 
 
 temple. It is difficult with any accuracy 
 to fix its age, but, as Sardis was one of 
 the twelve cities of Asia Minor restored 
 by Tiberius after the dreadful earthquake 
 which happened in his reign*, and as the 
 temple does not appear ever to have been 
 entirely finished, it is probable that we 
 ought to refer its erection to the era of 
 that prince. At the same time it is to 
 be observed, that the remains bear some 
 marks of higher antiquity: the projection 
 of the volutes, and other peculiarities, 
 with the beauty of the architecture, seem 
 to indicate the work of an earlier period. 
 The Corinthian order of architecture 
 is comparatively of recent invention ; 
 and exhibits the highest degree of re- 
 finement to which the Greeks attained ; 
 but it is a remarkable circumstance in 
 the history of art among this wonderful 
 * Strab. lib. xiii. j). 627. 
 
172 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 people, and it has been justly observed, 
 that in all their progress towards magni- 
 ficence and splendor, they appear not 
 only never to have lost sight of the re- 
 quisite simplicity of design, but that their 
 improvements in this respect were more 
 than commensurate with the increased 
 decoration of their buildings. Thus, the 
 Corinthian order, distinguished for the 
 utmost richness and luxuriance of orna- 
 ment in detail, is essentially the most 
 simple in its general character ; and af- 
 fords the greatest facilities in its exe- 
 cution. A fanciful and ingenious story 
 of its origin, related by Vitruvius, is well 
 known ; but unfortunately cannot be re- 
 ceived as credible history : the tale is 
 valuable, however, as affording an inti- 
 mation of the date of its introduction ; 
 for Callimachus, who, according to this 
 tradition, is said to have transferred 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 173 
 
 the leaves of the acanthus from the 
 tomb of the Corinthian virgin to the 
 capitals of his columns, lived towards 
 the end of the Peloponnesian war, and 
 was the artist so much celebrated as the 
 author of the lamp preserved constantly 
 burning in the temple of Minerva-Polias 
 at Athens*. It is not altogether im- 
 probable that the characteristic ornament 
 of the style may have been imported from 
 Egypt : the flower of the lotus, which 
 generally formed the decoration of the 
 ponderous structures of that country, in 
 some of its fantastic varieties bears a near 
 resemblance to the ornaments of the Co- 
 rinthian capital ; and, as no great degree 
 of intercourse and traffic prevailed be- 
 tween Greece and Egypt until the com- 
 
 * Vitruv. 1. iv. c. 1. Pausan. Att. c. 26. Strab. 
 1. ix. p. 396. 
 
174 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 paratively more recent periods of their 
 history, its kite appearance in Europe is 
 sufficiently accounted for. 
 
 If a well-known bas-relief in the Villa 
 Albani were thought to be as ancient as 
 the style of work would seem to indicate, 
 we should refer the invention of the Co- 
 rinthian order to a period considerably 
 antecedent to the age of Phidias, and 
 therefore more than a century prior to 
 the date assigned by Vitruvius. But I 
 think there can be little probability of 
 the remote antiquity of this sculpture ; 
 on the contrary, it seems clear that we 
 ouffht to consider it as an imitation of 
 the archaic style, executed in an age 
 comparatively recent, being perhaps the 
 work of an artist who lived under the 
 Roman empire. The draperies of the 
 figures are exquisitely wrought, and, it 
 must be admitted, possess all the pecu- 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 175 
 
 liarities which characterise the art when 
 contemporaneous with the Persian in- 
 vasion ; but the execution of the Co- 
 rinthian temple is inferior to that of the 
 figures, and in it we no longer observe 
 the same accurate imitation of the early 
 style. The capitals of the columns are 
 not formed on a Greek model ; and the 
 entablature is rendered disproportion- 
 ately low by the Roman practice of 
 greatly diminishing the architrave*. 
 
 The concluding years of the Pelopon- 
 nesian war witnessed the first examples 
 of the style in Greece ; I believe, at 
 least, that no notice occurs in ancient 
 
 * Winkelmann, Hist, de I'Art, 1. iv. c. 6. A simi- 
 lar example of sculpture in relief, brought from 
 Athens, is to be found in the collection of the British 
 Museum, but of very inferior workmanship, and in 
 which the evidences of an imitation of the early, style 
 are still more apparent. 
 
176 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 writers of its prior existence. The old 
 temple of Minerva at Tegea was burnt 
 down in the ninety-fourth Olympiad, 
 and was rebuilt by the finnous Scopas of 
 Paros, who produced the largest, and 
 according to Pausanias the most beauti- 
 ful, building in the Peloponnesus. It 
 was an hypaethral edifice ; the interior of 
 the cell was adorned by tv/o rows of 
 Doric columns surmounted by others of 
 the Corinthian order. The peristyle was 
 Ionic*. This description furnishes us 
 with the correction of a mistake, into 
 which the learned author of a work al- 
 ready quoted has fallen, when he states, 
 that the practice of placing different or- 
 ders one above the other is not older 
 than the theatres and amphitheatres of 
 the Romans t- It is possible, however, 
 
 * Pausan. Arcad. c. 45. 
 
 + Knight, Anal. Inquiry, pt. ii. c. 2. 46. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 177 
 
 that we ought to reverse the order in 
 which Pausanias speaks of the exterior 
 and interior columns ; as it is more rea- 
 sonable to suppose that the peristyle was 
 Doric, and that the less massive orders 
 were in the interior of tlie building. 
 This is in some measure confirmed by 
 the mode actually observed in the temple 
 of Apollo near Phigalia, which is com- 
 pared by Pausanias with that of Minerva 
 at Tegea. A few shattered fragments 
 constitute the only remains of this once 
 magnificent structure ; but as the si- 
 tuation is precisely ascertained, the 
 whole plan might easily be restored, and 
 important discoveries made, by an ex- 
 cavation judiciously directed. 
 
 The choragic monument of Lysicrates, 
 well known by the appellation of the 
 Lanthorn of Demosthenes, was built, 
 according to the narrative inscribed on 
 
 N 
 
178 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 the frieze, in the hundred and eleventh 
 Olympiad. This little edifice has suf- 
 fered nothing from the many causes 
 which have contributed to lay in ruins 
 the noblest monuments of Athenian 
 taste, but is still entire, and may perhaps 
 be considered as the most exquisite and 
 perfect specimen of the order*. 
 
 It is probable that the singular octa- 
 gonal building at Athens, called the 
 Temple of the Winds, is not of a date 
 considerably later; it possesses some pecu- 
 liarities which are not observable in more 
 recent structures ; and the formation of 
 the roof, while it betrays an ignorance 
 of the principle of the arch, proves, at 
 the same time, in a remarkable manner, 
 the skill and ingenuity of the architect. 
 It is mentioned both by Vitruvius and 
 Varro as the work of Andronicus Cyr- 
 * Stuart's Athens, vol. i. c. 4. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 179 
 
 rhestes, but without any information re- 
 specting his age *. 
 
 Many of the ornamented theatres, so 
 numerous in Asia-Minor, were built, in 
 all probability, considerably before the 
 Roman conquest : that at Laodicea on 
 the Lycus, and that at Patara on the 
 coast of Lycia, are the most remarkable 
 among those of the Corinthian order f. 
 
 The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus at 
 Rome, was built by Domitian out of the 
 materials of some edifice at Athens which 
 had been transported from that city ; and 
 this work is worthy of mention, both 
 because its prior destination is probably 
 to be referred to the period of which we 
 are treating, and on account of the re- 
 mark of Plutarch, who relates that the 
 columns were cut and repolished after 
 
 * Vitruv. lib. i. c. 6. Varro de Re Rust. 1. iii. c. 5. 
 + Pococke, vol. ii. Ionian Antiquit. vol. i. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 their arrival at Rome, in order to produce 
 a greater degree of elegance and light- 
 ness, but that what they obtained in these 
 qualities they lost in grandeur and sym- 
 metrical proportion *. 
 
 The Roman conquest spread the Co- 
 rinthian style throughout Greece, almost 
 to the exclusion of the other orders. Al- 
 though the buildings of this period are 
 often more splendid and costly than those 
 of preceding times, yet the pure taste and 
 correct designs of the better ages of the 
 art are generally wanting. From this 
 remark, however, must be exempted some 
 of the works of Hadrian, the liberal 
 benefactor of Greece ; especially if the 
 columns at Athens, which are called by 
 his name, and which are in reality the 
 ruins of the temple of Jupiter Olympius^ 
 
 * Plut. in ^it, Publicol. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 181 
 
 owe their origin to this emperor. These 
 display the utmost beauty and propriety, 
 with perhaps the greatest degree of mag- 
 nificence and grandeur, ever attained to 
 by the architectural exertions of the em- 
 perors of the Roman world. The co- 
 lumns are probably the remains of that 
 temple which, according to Vitruvius, 
 was first projected by Pisistratus ; the 
 foundations of which were begun by 
 the architects Antistates, Callaeschros, 
 Antimachides and Porinos. Afterwards 
 Cossutius, by birth a Roman, built the 
 temple according to the design he made 
 by command of Antiochus Epiphanes. 
 These facts we learn from the same au- 
 thor ; who further informs us that the 
 temple then built, was of the Corinthian 
 order, and of the kind termed dipteral. 
 This account is perfectly consistent with 
 the mode of arrangement preserved by 
 
182 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 the remaining columns, which proves it 
 to have been a temple of that description. 
 Whenever, or by whomsoever, finished, 
 these columns bear the indications of a 
 pure age of Grecian art ; and indeed the 
 remains of such a temple with columns 
 composed of the purest marble, more 
 than six feet and a half in diameter, and 
 sixty feet in height, cannot be described 
 in any terms commensurate with the 
 sensations excited by the view of the 
 original*. 
 
 Although these splendid remains have 
 acquired an appellation to which they 
 appear to have no just claim, it may be 
 risrht here to ascribe to its real author 
 another Athenian building of the Co- 
 rinthian order, which possesses all tlie 
 
 * Pausan. Att. 18. Vitruv. proem, lib. vii. Stuart's 
 Athens, vol. iii. c. 2. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 183 
 
 characteristics of the age of this muni- 
 ficent prince, but to which Stuart has 
 erroneously attributed a Grecian origin. 
 From his authority it has generally been 
 called the Poikile, or painted portico ; 
 but when we observe the appearance of 
 the whole work, the columns placed on 
 pedestals, the foliage of the capitals, the 
 angles of the abacus, the epistylia, com- 
 posed of two fasciae, all corresponding 
 with the Roman practice, and more par- 
 ticularly with the gate of Hadrian in the 
 same city, authenticated by the inscrip- 
 tion which it bears, there is no reason to 
 entertain any doubt of its real date and 
 origin. In truth Pausanias, in his de- 
 scription, seems clearly to allude to a 
 striking peculiarity of this building ; by 
 which it appears to have been a kind of 
 atrium, surrounded by a portico open to 
 the interior, enclosing a museum, or build- 
 
184 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 ing, for the reception of statues and pic- 
 tures*. 
 
 Having thus shortly enumerated the 
 most striking vestiges of Grecian archi- 
 tecture still remaining to our times, 
 and having indicated the sources from 
 whence an accurate knowledge of all 
 their details may be derived ; it is scarcely 
 necessary even to allude to what has in- 
 deed been called the Tuscan style, but 
 which, in fact, seems merely to have been 
 a corrupt imitation of the Doric : nor is 
 it more desirable to describe at length 
 that barbarous mixture which prevailed 
 
 * Pausan. Att. 18. ifSTfoirjVT'ai Sb xa\ tous a-roous 
 xard rd aura o\ 'toly^oi. The appearance of the ruiu 
 fully explains this passage. 
 
 Compare this building given by Stuart, vol. i. c. 5. 
 with the arch of Hadrian, \ol. iii. c. ^i. A striking 
 resemblance is to be found in the ornamental details 
 of both . 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 185 
 
 in the later ages of the Roman empire, 
 and which is known by the name of the 
 Composite order ; for if the Corinthian 
 cohimn, according to the fanciful theory 
 of Vitruvius, bears some resemblance to 
 the chaste beauty of a young maid, the 
 characteristics of the Composite have not 
 inaptly been compared to the false attrac- 
 tions of meretricious decoration. The 
 practice of the Greeks was confined to 
 the three species which have already been 
 mentioned ; and it is observable that the 
 most perfect example of each kind is to 
 be found within the walls of the same 
 city. The narrow lanes and wretched 
 hovels which compose modern Athens, 
 are still ennobled by the most unequi- 
 vocal proofs of the glories of ancient art. 
 The majestic grandeur of the Parthenon; 
 the simply adorned elegance of the Erec- 
 theum ; and the beautiful and splendid 
 
186 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 decoration of the choragic monument, 
 and of the columns of Hadrian, arc alike 
 unrivalled in their several characters of 
 varied excellence. 
 
 We ought not, in any view, however 
 cursory, of the ornamental buildings of 
 the Greeks, to abstain from all notice of 
 an invention by which the representation 
 of human figures is substituted for co- 
 lumns, in the support of an entablature. 
 It is not unlikely that the practice may 
 have been derived from an Egyptian 
 source ; as in that country columns are 
 frequently to be seen with the repre- 
 sentation of female heads by way of ca- 
 pitals ; and in the Memnonium at Thebes 
 the epistylia are supported by figures of 
 men instead of columns*. Psammetichus 
 built at Memphis a temple dedicated to 
 Apis, the peristyle of which, according 
 * Denon Voy. d'Egypte, pi. 42. 6l. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 187 
 
 to Herodotus, was composed of colossal 
 figures instead of columns, each eighteen 
 feet high*. This must have been about 
 the thirtieth Olympiad, or more than six 
 hundred years before the Christian era, 
 and, as far as I know, is the most ancient 
 example authentically recorded. How- 
 ever this species of ornament may have 
 arisen, it has been so rarely practised in 
 Greece, that I believe the list afforded us 
 by ancient writers may be comprised in 
 two examples. The first is the Persian 
 portico at Sparta, an edifice much cele- 
 brated in ancient times, and which, it is 
 likely, was one of the earliest specimens 
 of the style. It is now to all appearance 
 utterly destroyed, and it is even difficult 
 to fix the precise spot on which it stood : 
 could this be accomplished, there is little 
 doubt that considerable remains might 
 
 * Herod, lib. xi. c. 15.S. 
 
188 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 speedily be discovered, for the frequency 
 of earthquakes at Sparta makes it pro- 
 bable that the portico was thrown down 
 by one of these convulsions rather than 
 by the effect of time ; and the rapid ac- 
 cumulation of the fine alluvial soil that 
 forms the valley of the Eurotas, would 
 effectually protect from external injury 
 the interesting fragments which it co- 
 vered. The building was erected shortly 
 after the defeat of Xerxes, and the ar- 
 chitrave w^as upheld by sculptured figures 
 habited in the loose drapery and flowing 
 robes of the Asiatics : among them were 
 the portraits of individuals, for those of 
 Gobryas and Mardonius are particularly 
 mentioned*. It is not certain how these 
 figures w^ere disposed, but it is probable 
 that they formed a kind of second order, 
 and were placed over the columns of the 
 * Pausan. Lacon. 11. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 189 
 
 building. The words of Pausanias, ac- 
 cording to the most obvious interpreta- 
 tion, seem to imply this — sW) Sh sir) twv kiovcuv 
 llE§<rcci, a/9ou \£vkov — . The portico may 
 therefore have resembled an edifice at 
 Thessalonica, still remaining in part, and 
 described by Stuart (Athens, vol. iii. 
 c. 9.) ; which, indeed, ought perhaps to 
 be added as an example, although, from 
 an appearance of Roman origin, its date 
 is of questionable authority. 
 
 A portico of the Pandroseum at Athens 
 furnishes an instance of the representa- 
 tion of female figures supporting an en- 
 tablature, and is so beautiful as almost 
 to justify what may perhaps be considered 
 as a capricious deviation from established 
 taste. The date of this elegant structure 
 must, beyond all doubt, be deemed coeval 
 with that of the double temple of Mi- 
 nerva-Polias and Pandrosus to which it 
 
190 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 is annexed*. This use of Caryatides, as 
 they are called, although known in tlie 
 best ages of the architecture of Greece, 
 does not seem ever to have been very 
 general, or even favoured in that country. 
 Their appellation has been explained by 
 Vitruviusf ; but it is not probable that 
 the story which would refer their origin 
 to the commemoration of the captivity 
 of the Caryan women, after the destruc- 
 tion of the city in consequence of its 
 desertion of the cause of the Greeks in 
 the Persian war, is entitled to more 
 credit than the idle traditions to be met 
 with in the pages of the same author, 
 respecting the invention of the different 
 Grecian orders. In fact, these female 
 figures were not represented as captives, 
 nor, as it would seem, with any symbols 
 
 * Pausan. Att. 21. Stuart's Athens, vol. ii. c. 2. 
 f Vitruv. lib. i. c. 1. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 191 
 
 of subjection and disgrace, which we 
 might naturally have expected to find 
 had there been any foundation for this 
 tale of their origin. On the contrary, in 
 the architectural enumeration of the dif- 
 ferent parts of thePandroseum, contained 
 in the interesting inscription already 
 mentioned, the figures forming the por- 
 tico are simply styled KOPAI, or the vir- 
 gins, thereby intimating that they were 
 native Athenians j and indeed from their 
 appearance, there is every reason to pre- 
 sume that they were intended to repre- 
 sent the Canephorae, who were selected 
 for the solemnities of the Panathengean 
 festival from the most distinguished fa- 
 milies of the city. 
 
 In the whole history of architecture 
 amongst the Greeks, nothing was more 
 calculated, at the period of its adoption, 
 to produce a greater revolution in the 
 
192 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 practice of the art ; or which, from its 
 many advantages, has been more uni- 
 versally preserved and admired in mo- 
 dern times, than the use of the arch, 
 constructed on scientific principles. An 
 endeavour, therefore, briefly to ascertain 
 the origin and date of this important in- 
 vention may not be altogether misplaced. 
 A difference of opinion has prevailed on 
 this question ; but after submitting the 
 subject to a good deal of inquiry and re- 
 flection, it appears most probable that the 
 era of the Macedonian conquest nearly 
 coincides with that of the first introduc- 
 tion of this remarkable feature of Grecian 
 architecture. Much has indeed been 
 written to prove that the use of the arch 
 was not only familiar to the earliest artists 
 of Greece, but was even to be traced 
 throughout the yet more ancient monu- 
 ments of Egyptian labour. In adducing 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 193 
 
 this proof, the most obvious mistakes 
 and the grossest blunders have been 
 committed : drawings and engravings 
 of the actual remains of the antiqui- 
 ties of these countries have been re- 
 ferred to ; and the wretched cabins of 
 the Arabs, and the towers and steeples 
 of the modern Greeks, have been 
 gravely represented by some, as form- 
 ing part of the ancient temples, among 
 which these fabrics are frequently to 
 be discovered. The selection of those 
 travellers whose accounts are to be 
 received has not always been judi- 
 cious ; to the authority of such writers 
 as Paul Lucas, and some others of his 
 nation, no particle of credit is due : his 
 truth and accuracy are declared by a 
 recent traveller, his countryman, to be 
 only worthy of comparison with the Ara- 
 
194 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 bian Nights* Entertainments*. In like 
 manner, the assertions contained in 
 works of late date, composed under the 
 Roman empire, have been implicitly 
 adopted respecting the nature of build- 
 ings which either never had any exist- 
 ence at all, or which had been utterly 
 destroyed long previous to the times in 
 which their pretended descriptions were 
 published. The tales of the hanging 
 gardens of Babylon, of the labyrinths of 
 Crete, of Lemnos, and of Porsenna, are 
 equally fallacious and incredible. Strabo 
 and Pliny, who undertake to detail the 
 wonders of these edifices, had no other 
 object in view than to convey the notion 
 of vast and stupendous works ; the dis- 
 play of arches and of domes was best 
 
 * Cbateaubrianfl, Itineraire, pref. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 195 
 
 calculated in their own day to produce 
 this effect, and accordingly they did not 
 hesitate abundantly to employ these 
 forms in the account of buildings which 
 no one had ever seen*. 
 
 In considering this question, it is ne- 
 cessary to keep in mind the difference 
 between an arch constructed of wedge- 
 formed stones whose joints, if prolonged, 
 would meet in a centre ; and one pro- 
 duced merely by the gradual projection 
 of horizontal courses of stones until they 
 meet : of this inartificial description I 
 believe examples may be found in all 
 ages y but as abundant materials and 
 massive proportions are required in its 
 
 * Strab. lib. xvi. Plin. lib. xxxvi. c. 13. Hero- 
 tlotuSj who not only saw, but minutely described, 
 the Egj^tian labyrinth, the model of all works of this 
 kind, sufficiently proves that it was built without any 
 arch, lib. ii. c. 148. 
 
 02 
 
196 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 formation, little was gained by the 
 adoption of this method, and it is there- 
 fore rarely seen. The galleries in the 
 walls of Tiryns, as well as the section of 
 the treasury of Atreus, afford us exam- 
 ples of the most remote antiquity ; and a 
 friend, whose general accuracy and great 
 practical knowledge are universally ad- 
 mitted, has communicated to me a simi- 
 lar instance of what we may call a Cy- 
 clopian arch, existing in Italy*. It is 
 preserved quite entire, and has formed 
 a gateway in the wall of the ancient city 
 of Arpinum. This arch is somewhat 
 more elaborately constructed, but pos- 
 sesses the same character, and is pro- 
 bably not much more recent than the 
 Tirynthian galleries. But it is not only 
 in Greece and in Italy that we find arches 
 
 * Mr. R. Smirke, who made a drawing on the spot 
 of this interesting monument. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 197 
 
 of this description : for as if they were 
 the natural result of the endeavours of 
 a half civilised people to obtain height 
 and strength in the interior of their 
 buildings, we meet with them equally 
 amongst nations the farthest separated 
 from each other, — in Egypt, and in In- 
 dia, in the rude works of our British 
 ancestors*, and even in the monuments 
 of the original inhabitants of the new 
 world •]■. With respect to the arch sci- 
 entifically constructed, we may safely 
 assert that no specimen is to be met with 
 before the age of Alexander, either in 
 the existing remains of art in Greece, or 
 described in the works of those writers 
 who flourished previously to that period. 
 
 * King. Muniment. Antiq. vol. i. chap. vi. 
 Archaeolog. vol. xix. part 1. 
 
 t Humboldt. Relat. Historique, Ire ptie, p. 29. 
 
198 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 The words A^^is, ^AAis, ©OAOS, which 
 unquestionably in later times almost in- 
 variably implied arch, or dome, are used 
 in a different sense by the more ancient 
 authors. Thus in Homer a^is is simply 
 the connexion of threads {airluj, necto,) 
 and there, signifies the meshes of a net*. 
 Herodotus in relating the method by 
 which the horses and their riders, sa- 
 crificed at the funerals of the Scythian 
 kings, were suspended in the air ; in- 
 forms us that two curved pieces of wood 
 passed under the belly of the dead horse, 
 and were fixed at each end to the top of 
 a pole erected in the ground for that 
 purpose. These pieces of wood he calls 
 a^iSesf. Similar to this is the meaning of 
 the word as employed by Euripides to 
 
 * II. V. 404. t Herod, lib. iv. c. 72. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 109 
 
 denote the wheel of a chariot, or more 
 properly its circumference*. 
 
 *AAis in the recent ages of Greek 
 literature was synonymous with a^^is ; but 
 the word is rarely to be met with in the 
 works of the earlier writers. In a frag- 
 ment of Sophocles t, and by Plato t, it is 
 used in mentioning a subterranean edi- 
 
 * Hippol. V. 1247. 
 
 See also Aristoph. Thesmophor. v. 58, where although 
 the word is employed metaphorically, it appears to 
 have much the same signification. The passage is 
 somewhat obscure and difficult. 
 
 \ Lacaense, quoted by Pollux, lib. ix. 
 
 X De Legibus, lib. xii. There can be little doubt 
 that the true reading is \I/a\i'Ja, and not avJ/IJa. The 
 passage is thus cited by Suidas (in ^xX). See also 
 Pollux, lib. ix. 49. ed. Hemst. where in the notes, 
 other reasons are produced. I learn from Mr. Gais- 
 ford that \{/aAiJa is the reading preserved in a MS. 
 of the Leyden library, which formerly belonged to 
 Isaac Vossius. r^aXi Jo. is likewise the reading of the 
 scholiast as published by Ruhnkcuius. 
 
200 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 fice. What it anciently signified as a 
 term in building; is very uncertain, but if 
 Ave might conjecture from its primitive 
 meaning, forfex, shears or scissars, it is 
 difficult to imagine how any thing de- 
 scriptive of this instrument should enter 
 into the formation of an arch. 
 
 0OAO2, which is interpreted dome, or 
 cupola, implied before the Macedonian 
 conquest merely a circular edifice, with- 
 out any reference to the nature of the 
 roof: this was so far from being ne- 
 cessarily arched, that there is, on the 
 contrary, sufficient reason to believe it 
 was in general of a different form, and 
 was conical, or terminating in a point. 
 It is thus explained by the old lexico- 
 graphers*. We may observe also that 
 the derivative from this word, employed 
 
 * Suid. ill loc. Hesycli. o'/xof ei; o^y aTroAijy&uo-av 
 iyjxiv Ty]v (xnyr^v ko,' SJKSvaa-tJ.ivoi. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 201 
 
 to express the pointed caps, or bonnets 
 worn by the Greeks, serves to confirm 
 the accuracy of this interpretation*. The 
 tholus mentioned by Homer, it is clear, 
 could not have been vaulted, for the roof 
 was supported by a large column in the 
 centre t. At Athens and Epidaurus there 
 were buildings bearing this appellation ; 
 the first was an ancient edifice, in which 
 the Prytanes were accustomed to meet; 
 the other was the work of the celebrated 
 Polycletus : they are both described by 
 Pausanias, but in neither does he inti- 
 mate the existence of any thing like an 
 arch :|:. 
 
 From what has been said, it is evident 
 that we ought to hesitate in giving ge- 
 nerally to these words the interpretation 
 
 * Vid. Stephan. ©oAj'a, pileus in acutum desinens. 
 
 f Od. xxii. 456. 
 
 :j: Pfiusan. Att. c. 5. Cor. c. 27- 
 
202 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 of late writers ; and where they occur 
 in more ancient works, all notion of a 
 scientific arch is to be withheld, unless 
 the term itself be accompanied by such 
 circumstances as are sufficient to indicate 
 the principle of its construction. It has 
 already been asserted that no such in- 
 dication is to be found in any author 
 previous to the hundred and tw^elfth 
 Olympiad j and when, in addition to this 
 fact, among the various architectural re- 
 mains in Greece, we discover no vestige 
 of such a mode of building anterior to the 
 same date, the question seems to be nearly 
 determined. 
 
 I observe that M. Visconti, in a recent 
 publication, asserts that the arch was 
 known to the Greeks in the age of Alex- 
 ander*. Without meaning to deny this 
 proposition, I cannot but remark that no 
 
 * Visconti. Mem. sur Ics Sculptures d'Athenes. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 203 
 
 conclusive arguments are adduced by 
 him to prove the fact. M. Visconti says 
 that Pompey imitated at Rome the theatre 
 of Mytilene, and that his, in its turn, 
 served as the model for that of Marcellus ; 
 in which, as we know there were arcades, 
 we are therefore to presume there were 
 arches in that of Mytilene. Now in the 
 first place, it is not said in what the imi- 
 tation by Pompey precisely consisted : it 
 is true that he brought the form and plan 
 with him to Rome ; but as I think we 
 are informed that this great captain was 
 the first of the Romans who ever em- 
 ployed stone in buildings of this nature, 
 they having previously been constructed 
 of wood, it is obvious that there might 
 have been much to imitate, exclusive of 
 ornamental details. But even supposing 
 the theatre of Pompey to have been ac- 
 curately and minutely copied from that 
 
204 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 of Mytilene, it does by no means neces- 
 sarily follow that arches were to be found 
 in either of them ; for nothing can be 
 more vague and general than the terms 
 in which Dion Cassius informs us of the 
 manner in which Julius Caesar began to 
 build the theatre of Marcellus, from the 
 remains of which only, we are enabled to 
 form any conjecture respecting the other 
 two already mentioned*. From this pas- 
 sage of Dion it is not clear whether we 
 are to understand that Ceesar merely fol- 
 lowed the example of Pompey in build- 
 ing a theatre, without stating any thing 
 with reference to a specific plan ; which, 
 as it was but ten years subsequent, 
 seems not improbable ; or whether we 
 are to interpret Caesar's undertaking to 
 be in imitation of the particular build- 
 
 * Dion. Cass. lib. xliii. c. 49- Qaal^dv rk ri kuIx 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. S05 
 
 ing erected by his great rival. Should 
 the latter sense be correct, it follows that 
 as the theatre of Marcellus was the se- 
 cond of stone which had ever been seen 
 in Rome, we must still admit that the 
 employment of a similar material would 
 alone be quite sufficient to justify the 
 general expression of the historian. But 
 in addition to this, it is to be remarked, 
 that we have no knowledge of the date 
 of the Mytilenaean theatre itself, the sup- 
 posed model of those at Rome. A period 
 of near three hundred years had elapsed 
 from the age of Alexander to that of 
 Pompey, affording a space of time amply 
 sufficient for the origin of the building 
 long subsequent to the death of the Ma- 
 cedonian conqueror ; and indeed, I have 
 little doubt that the greater part of those 
 theatres, the numerous remains of which 
 
206 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 still adorn the coasts of Asia Minor, were 
 erected during this interval. 
 
 The only additional argument brought 
 forward by M. Visconti to prove the 
 existence of arches in the age of Alex- 
 ander, is entitled to still less weight than 
 that which has been just mentioned. He 
 states, that according to Plutarch, Cleo- 
 menes at the siege of Argos penetrated 
 into the aqueducts under Aspis, and by 
 this means entered the city*. Now, it is 
 to be observed that these aqueducts were 
 nothing more than perforations of the 
 Phoronaean hill, or Aspis, as it was 
 usually called, from its resemblance to 
 the form of a shield ; and it is impossible 
 therefore that they should give us any 
 just notion of the peculiar species of con- 
 
 * Plut. in Cleom. c. 21. ex^o^'ocs ^s rds vvo rijv 
 'Amr/Ja ^x\iSx$, ocve^rj xa) a-vvsi^il^e roTj aySov x. r. A. 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 207 
 
 struction in question. Their remains, 
 such as described, are distinctly visible at 
 this day. But even had we been unable 
 to explain the precise nature of these 
 aqueducts, it would be unreasonable to ad- 
 mit that the term alone, unaccompanied 
 with any descriptive particulars, ought 
 to be considered as sufficient to authen- 
 ticate a fact respecting which so much 
 doubt exists ; especially when the term 
 itself has anciently received a great va- 
 riety of significations, and many of them 
 quite incompatible with the hypothesis 
 of M. Visconti. 
 
 There is indeed a passage in Aristotle*, 
 that would, if it were genuine, compel us 
 to assign a period for this invention, at 
 least as remote as the reign of this prince ; 
 for the principle of the arch being held 
 together by the key-stone is expressly 
 
 * Aristot. TTef . Kocr|i/,o. c. 6. 
 
SOS THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 mentioned, and is made the subject of 
 comparison with the government of the 
 universe by the Supreme Being. It is 
 sufficient, however, to state that the pas- 
 sage occurs in the treatise ' De Mundo/ 
 Concerning the genuineness of this work, 
 in the ages immediately succeeding the 
 restoration of literature, there was much 
 difference of opinion ; but the dispute is 
 now set at rest to the satisfaction of every 
 Greek scholar ; of which I will evince 
 my conviction by abstaining here from 
 the production of any one of those proofs 
 by which the composition might be shown 
 to be spurious. 
 
 It is difficult to give a conclusive rea- 
 son for adopting the age of Alexander 
 the Great, in preference to a still later 
 period, as that which gave birth to the 
 invention of the arch : on the whole, 
 however, it is not improbable that it may 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 209 
 
 have originated about this time: the ad- 
 vances of science had been rapid and ex- 
 tensive, and a new world was, by his con- 
 quests, opened to Grecian inquiry and re- 
 search. It is to the East that we are to 
 look for the first authors of this style; for 
 in truth, the scientific principle of the arch 
 was likely to have remained long unknown 
 in Greece, where stone and marble were 
 found in such abundance. When height 
 was indispensable, it was obtained from 
 the earliest times in that country, by the 
 gradual approximation of stones placed 
 horizontally each over the other ; but as 
 this method, from the ponderous masses 
 necessarily employed, was attended with 
 great labour* and expense, it was, as 
 already stated, rarely practised. In dis- 
 tricts in which large blocks of stone were 
 with difficulty procured, as in many of 
 
210 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 the fertile and extensive plains of the 
 East, the invention of the arch would 
 probably arise from the mere necessity 
 of the case, in the use of such materials 
 as were to be obtained ; and in such 
 situations, was of the highest value. We 
 cannot however wonder that a discovery, 
 so powerfully recommended by its cha- 
 racter of utility, convenience, and cheap- 
 ness, should, when once known, have 
 been speedily adopted throughout the 
 civilized world. How far these advan- 
 tages may have contributed to the em- 
 ployment of the arch in situations to 
 which it was ill suited, and indeed inap- 
 plicable, it is not necessary to inquire — 
 perhaps we may doubt whether a very 
 material addition has been made to the 
 ornamental architecture of the Greeks by 
 its introduction : few will dciiv that its 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 211 
 
 abuse has perpetuated a greater corrup- 
 tion of style, and a more truly vitiated 
 taste, than would probably have been 
 witnessed had it never existed. 
 
 In addition to the remarks which have 
 already been made on the temples of the 
 Greeks, it is not my intention to pursue 
 and to note the gradual changes and va- 
 riations in the different species of their 
 ornamental architecture — their theatres 
 — their forums — their public baths and 
 private dwellings ; although each of these 
 topics affords matter for much curious 
 investigation. Neither is it my present 
 purpose more particularly to trace the 
 decline, and final extinction, of that taste 
 and beauty which, for a time, appeared 
 to be inherent in the works of this people. 
 It may be observed, in general, that sub- 
 sequent to the Macedonian conquest, the 
 
 p 2 
 
212 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 progress of mechanical science in Greece 
 must undoubtedly have afforded con- 
 siderable facilities in the execution of 
 the art, and have largely extended the 
 powers of the artist ; but it does not 
 appear that architecture acquired new 
 beauties or arrived at greater perfection. 
 It may even perhaps be thought that the 
 fabrics of this era aimed more at the dis- 
 play of royal magnificence than would 
 have been consistent with the chaste se- 
 verity of republican taste. During the 
 same period, a change somewhat analo- 
 gous, and arising probably from causes 
 not very dissimilar, was gradually effected 
 in the higher productions of Greek in- 
 tellect and genius : their orators became 
 mere rhetoricians, and even their poets 
 preferred too often the charms of skilful 
 versification, and the tricks of art, to the 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 213 
 
 energetic simplicity of nature and of 
 truth. The most brilliant epoch of Gre- 
 cian architecture, and in which we are 
 to look for perfection in the art, was 
 comprised in the short space of about 
 two hundred years, including the re- 
 spective ages both of Pericles and of 
 Alexander, from whose death its gradual 
 decline may perhaps be said to have 
 commenced. But under the subsequent 
 dominion of Roman emperors its dete- 
 rioration was still more apparent; for 
 although the sovereio:ns of the world 
 astonished mankind by the prodigious di- 
 mensions and gorgeous splendor of their 
 architectural undertakings, yet when 
 compared with the purity of Grecian 
 design, the evidences of barbarism are 
 perceptible in most of their works. This 
 corruption of style, unattended however 
 
214 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 with any diminution of cost and magni- 
 ficence in the buildings themselves, ra- 
 pidly increased, until all vestiges of beauty 
 and propriety were lost in the long period 
 of darkness which followed the destruc- 
 tion of the empire. 
 
 At the revival of the art in Italy, during 
 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the 
 great architects who adorned that country 
 naturally looked for instruction to the 
 monuments with which they were sur- 
 rounded, — the wrecks and fragments of 
 imperial Rome. These were not only 
 successfully imitated, but were some- 
 times even surpassed by the Italian 
 artists ; for Bramante and Michel An- 
 gelo, Palladio and Bernini designed and 
 executed works which, although of un- 
 equal merit, may perhaps fairly challenge 
 a comparison with the boasted produc- 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 215 
 
 tions of the Augustan age. It is not, 
 however, to be expected that their com- 
 positions should be free from those im- 
 perfections which are to be found in the 
 models from whence they derived their 
 knowledge, and on which their taste was 
 formed. The precious remains of Gre- 
 cian art were long neglected, and the 
 most beautiful were, in truth, nearly in- 
 accessible to the christian world. It is 
 almost in our own time that obstacles, 
 formerly insurmountable, have been first 
 vanquished ; and that the treasures of 
 art, still unfortunately in the custody of 
 ignorance and barbarism, have not only 
 been visited, but have been accurately 
 measured and delineated. Henceforth, 
 therefore, these exquisite remains should 
 form the chief study of the architect who 
 aspires to permanent reputation j other 
 
216 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY 
 
 modes are transitory and uncertain, but 
 the essential qualities of Grecian excel- 
 lence, as they are founded on reason, and 
 are consistent with fitness and propriety, 
 will ever continue to deserve his first 
 care. These models should be imitated 
 however, — not with the timid and servile 
 hand of a copyist ; but their beauties 
 should be transferred to our soil, pre- 
 serving, at the same time, a due regard 
 to the changes of customs and manners, 
 to the difference of our climate, and to 
 the condition of modern society. In this 
 case, it would not be so much the details 
 of the edifice itself, however perfect, 
 wdiich ought to eno-ross the attention of 
 the artist, but he should strive rather to 
 possess himself of the spirit and genius 
 by which it was originally planned and 
 directed 5 and to acquire those just prin- 
 
IN GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 217 
 
 ciples of taste, which are capable of ge- 
 neral apphcation. The words of a com- 
 petent judge, in describing the practice 
 of the Greeks, will give additional weight 
 to these opinions. Omnia enim certa 
 proprietate, et a veris naturae deductis 
 moribus, traduxerunt in operum per- 
 fectiones : et ea probaverunt, quorum 
 explicationes in disputationibus rationem 
 possunt habere veritatis*. 
 
 * Vitruv. lib. iv. c. 2. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 rillNTEI) BY THOMAS DAVISON. Will rF.KIlIARS 
 
e' •■ '■•» 
 
 6'^'B'1'+54, 
 
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