Rudiments of ancient architecture, containing an historical account of the five orders, with their proportions, and examples of each from antiques also, extracts from Vitruvius, Pliny, &c. relative to the buildings of the ancients (London, 1810 (4. Aufl.))

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE. 53

mans. Q. Curtius says the same of the
Indians* The Druids, who has not heard
of their sacred oaks and consecrated
groves ? the Romans too, practised the
same mode of worship, and had Luci, or
groves, dedicated to some particular deity
in most parts of the city of Rome*

Such, we may therefore suppose, were
the places first set apart for religious wor-
ship ; but when the weather, or inclina-
tion, rendered an enclosed place desirable,
they laboured, in this early state of arts,
to produce a building, merely suited to the
necessary purposes. But when society
was more enlarged and refined, and the
profits of commerce and dominion accu-
mulated to wealth, then the mind of man,
which naturally runs towards excellence,
was not content with the plain and simple
structures already built. A modern writer
has well observed, that, " Those who have
already all they can enjoy, must enlarge
their desires. He that has built for use,
till use is supplied, must begin to build for
vanity, and extend his plan to the utmost
power of human performance; that he