The whole o f their architecture, indeed, is as unfightly
as unfolid; without elegance or convenience o f defign, and
without any fettled proportion ; mean in its appearance,
and clumfey in the Workmanfhip. Their pagodas o f five,
feven, and nine rounds, or roofs, are the moft ftriking objects
; but though they appear to be the imitations or," perhaps,
more properly fpeaking, the models o f a fimilar kind
o f pyramids found in India, they are neither fo well de-
figned, nor fo well executed : they are, in faCt, fo very ill conftruCted
that half o f them, without any marks o f antiquity, appear
in ru ins; o f thefe ufelefs and whimfical edifices His Ma-
je fty ’s garden at K ew exhibits a fpecimen, which is not inferior
in any refpeCt to the very beft I have met with in China. The
height o f fuch ftruCtures, and the badnefs o f the materials with
which they are ufually built, contradict the notion that they
affign as a reafon for the lownefs o f their houfes, which is, that
they may efcape being thrown down by earthquakes. In faCt,
the tent ftands confeffed in all their dwellings, o f which the
curved roof and the wooden pillars (in imitation o f the poles)
forming a colonnade round the ill-built brick walls, clearly denote
the origin; and from this original form they have never
ventured to deviate. Their temples are moftly conftruCted
upon the fame plan, with the addition o f a fecond, and fome-
times a third roof, one above the other. The wooden pillars
that conftitute the colonnade are generally o f larch fir, o f no
fettled proportion between the length and the diameter, and
they are invariably painted red and fometimes covered with a
coat o f varnilh.
A s
As cuftom and faihion are not the fame in any two countries,
it has been contended by many that there can be no fuch thing
as true tafte. The advocates for tafte arifing out o f cuftom will
fay, that no folid reafon can be offered why the pillar which
fupports the Doric capital fhould be two diameters fhorterthan
that which fuftains the Corinthian ; and that it is the habit only
o f feeing them thus conftruCted that conftitutes their propriety.
Though the refpeCtive beauties o f thefe particular columns may,
in part, be felt from the habit ofobferving them al ways retaining'
a fettled proportion* yet it muft be allowed that, in the moft
perfeCt works o f nature, there appears a ‘ certain harmony and
agreement o f one part' With another, that without any fettled'
proportion feldom fail to plesfe. ‘Few people will difagree.
in their ideas o f a handfome tree, or an elegant flower, though
there be no fixed proportion between the trunk and the branches,
the flower and the foot-ftalk. Proportion, therefore, alone, is
not fufficient to conftitute beauty. There muft be no ftiffnefs,-
no fudden breaking off from a ftraight line to a curve; but the
changes fhould be eafy, not vifible in any particular part, but
running imperceptibly through the whole. Utility has alfo
been confidered as one o f the conftrtuent parts o f beauty. In
the Chinefe column, labouring under an enormous mafs o f
roof, without either bafe or capital, there is neither fymmetry
o f parts, nor eafe, nor particular Utility. Nor have the large
ifl-fhapen and unnatural figures o f lions, dragons, and ferpents,
grinning on the tops and cornets o f the roofs, any higher pre-
tenfions to good tafte, to utility, or to beauty.
u U 2 “ The