DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18826#0248
LICT II.] ARCHITECTURE. 37
There are certain principles in which every
erection intended for habitation must of necessity
asree; such as, that it should be a defence from
the vicissitudes of the seasons; that it should be a
commodious receptacle for property; that it should
permit the necessary avocations of nature, and con-
tribute to safety and satisfaction as well by night as
by day, and so on. These are but a part, though a
very important part of architectural study: indeed,
it is not easy to notice the variety of which archi-
tecture is capable, much less to render it improving,
or entertaining: nor is it my present design, to
enter into a detail of carpentry, and perplex my au-
ditory with the distinctions and applications of
beams, timbers, girders, joists, and rafters; these
we leave to whom they may professionally concern;
but we shall attend somewhat to the leading and
standard principles of building, and then turn our
attention to those compositions which profess to im-
part peculiar elegance.
Having thus attended to the necessary properties
of a building, let us now advert to the nature, and
the application of its ornaments.
In a former discourse we remarked, that, to in-
crease the magnificence of their temples, the an-
cient arthitects augmented the number of their
columns; and, that whenever elegance was ne-
cessary, recourse was had to columns: What is
there in columns which entitles them to this di-
stinction? or, are they all equally elegant?
There seems, I think, little reason to doubt that
trees were the first supports to buildings of con-
siderable
/
There are certain principles in which every
erection intended for habitation must of necessity
asree; such as, that it should be a defence from
the vicissitudes of the seasons; that it should be a
commodious receptacle for property; that it should
permit the necessary avocations of nature, and con-
tribute to safety and satisfaction as well by night as
by day, and so on. These are but a part, though a
very important part of architectural study: indeed,
it is not easy to notice the variety of which archi-
tecture is capable, much less to render it improving,
or entertaining: nor is it my present design, to
enter into a detail of carpentry, and perplex my au-
ditory with the distinctions and applications of
beams, timbers, girders, joists, and rafters; these
we leave to whom they may professionally concern;
but we shall attend somewhat to the leading and
standard principles of building, and then turn our
attention to those compositions which profess to im-
part peculiar elegance.
Having thus attended to the necessary properties
of a building, let us now advert to the nature, and
the application of its ornaments.
In a former discourse we remarked, that, to in-
crease the magnificence of their temples, the an-
cient arthitects augmented the number of their
columns; and, that whenever elegance was ne-
cessary, recourse was had to columns: What is
there in columns which entitles them to this di-
stinction? or, are they all equally elegant?
There seems, I think, little reason to doubt that
trees were the first supports to buildings of con-
siderable
/