[ l7° ]
avoided j since, if all this richness was neces-
sary, why not use the Corinthian,, or the Ionic,
at once ? Is these orders were unknown, the
excuse of Decenary ornament might be pardon-
able j but while character is allowed to be of
importance, it should be adhered to: and even
if urged by neceslity to deviation from it, which,
I am persuaded, is not often the case, it fhould
be departed srom as little as may be.
Propriety is, I think, the director on all
cccasions ; and very far am I from suppoling,
that general regulations are perpetually to be
enforced. I would not ornament a mile-stone
with a capital of Acanthus, because it was so
many diameters high; it would be mi sern-
ployed: nor do I think the worse of those
great architects, who have chosen the Tuscan,
though the least elegant order, for the pillars
O o J L
which perpetuate the memory of Trajan and
Aurelian ; because, these pillars being im-
mense masTes, Handing alone, and being deco-
rated with historical sculptures, are out of the
usual applications of art. Moreover, we have
but to consider the effedst of perspedtive on the
lengthened snaft of a taller pillar, to perceive
that the uppermost ranges of sigures in such
erections, mult have been, if not nearly invisi-
bie, certainly very greatly confused and indis-
tindt 5