Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/283

 Bk. III. Ch. II. IJOPJC ORDi;;it. 251 pediinent. This, I believe, was common to all temples, but in the Parthenon the curve was applied to the sides also, though from what motive it is not so easy to detect. Another refinement was making all the columns slope slightly inwards, so as to give an idea of strength and support to the whole. Add to this, that all the curved lines used were either hyperbolas or parabolas. With one exception only, no circular line was employed, nor even an ellipse. Every part of the temple was also arranged with the most unbounded care and accuracy, and every detail of the nuisonry Avas carried out with a j^i'ecision and beauty of execution which is almost unrivalled, and it may be added that the material of the whole was the purest and best white marble. All these delicate adjustments, this exquisite finish and attention to even the smallest details, are Avell bestowed on a design in itself simple, beautiful, and apjH'opriate. They combine to render this order, as found in the best Greek temples, as nearly faultless as any work of art can possibly be, and such as we may dwell upon with the most uninixed and unvarying satisfaction. The system of definite proportion which the Greeks employed in the design of their temples, was another cause of the effect they pro- duce even on uneducated minds. It was not with them merely that the height was equal to the width, or the length about twice the breadth ; but every part was proportioned to all those parts with which it was related, in some such ratio as 1 to 6, 2 to 7, 3 to 8, 4 to 9, or 5 to 10, etc. As the scheme advances these numbers become unde- sirably high. In this case they reverted to some such simple ratios as 4 to 5, 5 to 6, 6 to 7, and so on. We do not yet quite understand the process of reasoning by A^■hich the Greeks arrived at the laws which guided their practice in this respect; but they evidently attaclied tlie utmost importance to it, and when the ratio was determined upon, they set it out with such accuracy, that even now the calculated and the measured dimensions seldom vary beyond such minute fractions as can only be expressed in hundredths of an inch. Though the existence of such a system of ratios has long been suspected, it is only recently that any measurements of Greek temples have been made with sufficient accuracy to enable the matter to be properly investigated and their existence proved. ^ The ratios are in some instances so recondite, and the correlation of the parts at first sight so apparently remote, that many would be ' For measurements we depend on Pen- rose, "Principles of Athenian Arcliitec- ture." etc., fol.; and Cockerel!, "The Temples of Egina and Bassie," Lond. 1860. The details of the system were first imbliciy announced by Watkiss Lloyd, in a paper read to the Institute of British Arcliitects in 18-59: afterwards in an ap- pendix to Mr. Cockerell's work, and in several mir.or publications.