Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/107

 whilst the Stones are jointed into each other in such a manner, that they mutually bear up themselves, without any Rest but the Wall, into which the innermost Stones are fastned. That they had not Engines to raise their Stones to any considerable heighth; but if the Work was low, they carried them upon their Shoulders; if high, they raised sloping Mounts of Earth level with their Work, by which they rolled up their Stones to what heighth they pleased: For, as for the Engines for Raising of Stones in Vitruvius, those who understand Mechanicks are agreed, that they can never be very serviceable. That it is not the Largeness of a Building, but the well executing of a Noble Design, which commends an Architect; otherwise the Egyptian Pyramids, as they are the greatest, would also be the finest Structures in the World. And last of all, That the French King's Palace at Versailles, and the Frontispiece of the Louvre, discover more true Skill in Architecture of all sorts, than any thing which the Ancients ever performed, if we may judge of what is lost, by what remains."

What Monsieur Perrault says of the Ancients Way of Raising their Stone,