Читать книгу The Englishman's House: A Practical Guide for Selecting and Building a House онлайн

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The author goes on, in a similarly ingenious manner, to prove the derivation, from nature, of the Orders of Grecian architecture. He ascribes the form of the roof as having necessarily suggested that of the pediment. On this point he quotes the remark of Cicero: “It is not to pleasure that we are indebted for the pediment of the Capitol and those of our temples: necessity suggested the form for the better draining off the water; nevertheless, its beauty is so very great, and it is become so necessary for edifices, that if a Capitol were to be built in Olympus, where it was never known to rain, it would, notwithstanding, be necessary to give it a pediment.”

The preceding remarks and ingenious theory amply justify the opinion already suggested, that nature must be the foundation of every true principle of art. Assuming, as we are compelled to do, that the Grecian style as a whole was original, the only perfect model that could have been selected was that afforded by natural objects, in all of which are found the most perfect results, derived from few means but answering an infinity of ends. It will be remembered that the construction of the Eddystone lighthouse was based in regard to durability, and resistance to the force of the waves, on those properties which are possessed by any kind of tree exposed to the full force of the tempest. “Nature ought to be the basis of all imitation.”