The Art of Architecture Part 3

But choice of Place must be the BUILDER's Care, For various _Climates_, various _Modes_ prepare.

To some a _pleasing Vale_; (the Poet's Song) Where _silver Streams_ in Eddies glide along; A little rising Hill, with Woods o'ergrown, And at the Foot, a verdant Carpet thrown: Where the soft _vernal Bloom_ beneath is spread; Where the tall _Poplar_ hangs its _drooping Head_.

Where, on the Bank, the _Flowers_ and _Oziers_ green, Shade the smooth _Current_ as it runs between; The _fertile Meads_, enamell'd all around, And the _rich Glebe_ with _yellow Harvest_ crown'd.

Others in long-extended Views delight, Where _gilded_ Objects catch the Gazer's Sight.

Where the _wide Plain_, or _lawny Prospect_ lye, In mingled Sweets, to chear the _ravish'd Eye_.

Where the VALE, winding round the _rising Hill_; The LILLY drinks beneath; the latent RILL.

The _Lawns_, the _silver Streams_, the _opening Glade_, The distant _solemn Grove's_ collected Shade: Charms of the _verdant_, or the _flow'ry_ Plain; The rising _Mountain_, or the distant _Main_.---- Where _rugged Rocks_, in wild Disorder rise; Where _unprolifick Nature_, naked lies; Where the vast _craggy Summit_ seems to shew, A _falling Precipice_ to those below: Expos'd to scorching Heats, or piercing Wind, May more delight another's changing Mind; Or the rude _Billows_ of tempestuous Seas, Another's Eye, perhaps, may chance to please: View on the Summit of a foaming Wave, The unhappy _Sailor_ try's himself to save; The floating Wreck, the Vessel's shatter'd Side, Dash'd on the Sh.o.r.e, by the resistless Tide: The foaming _Surge_ the Sh.o.r.e repells again; And beats alternate, back upon the Main: View the abandon'd, helpless Wretch's State; Sinking, bemoans his LAST unhappy Fate.

All these the ARCHITECT must study well; From the proud _Palace_ to the humble _Cell_.

The barren _Mountain_, and the rural _Shade_; The mingled gay Profusion, Nature made, To fit and tally, Art requires his Skill, } From the _moist Meadow_; to the _brown-brow'd Hill_, } The silent _shady Grove_, or _silver Rill_. } To give a Grandeur to the _Opening Lawn_; And pleasing Softness, to the _solemn Dawn_; To join the _vivid_, with the _vernal_ Bloom; Where scarce a Sun Beam wanders thro' the Gloom.

This is the Art's Perfection well to know; To charm the Sense, and bid the Bosom glow: Teach us to imitate the ANCIENTS well; And where the _Moderns_ we should still _excell_.

Make the _Pavilion_ proper for the Spot, Or the _gay Temple_, or the _graver Grot_.

Adorn your _Villa_ with the nicest Art, And let your Dress, be just in every Part; Appropriate well, the Ornaments you choose; But not alone for Gaiety; but Use.

In a warm Climate where the _Tyber_ flows; Where in the Soil, the obdurate _Marble_ grows, There on the Spot, make choice of what you will, But HERE to use it, would be want of Skill: And 'tis an equal Fault of those alone; Who vainly imitate a _Portland-Stone_, The dryer Climates, cherish _Stucco_ there, But Rains, and colder Snows, destroy it here.

Avoid, as much as in you lyes, to place, _Festoons_, or looser Ornament for Grace: Few let the _Carvings_ be; for outside Dress: A Boldness rather should your Thoughts express, Redundancy, and Neatness will be lost: And but to finish HIGH; is needless Cost.

But then, regard to Distance must be had: If near the Eye, the Fault would be as bad.

S----D, in Spite of Reason and of Sense, With all those Faults, and Follies will dispense; _Carv'd Fronts_, and STUCCO decorated still, Without Regard to place, the Fabrick fill: 'Tis meant perhaps some _Fracture_ to conceal, Though frequent so; the more it does reveal: Such are the Reasons, should our Practice sway, And where the strongest plead, we should obey, The _most_ demonstrative, the _safest_ are; And what are not, we should avoid with Care: As you'd fly SCYLLA, or CHARYBDIS shun, Or Tricks of SCAPIN, HARLEQUIN, or LUN.

_Convenience_ first, then _Beauty_ is a Part, And _Strength_ must be a.s.sistant to the Art.

A _little_ Seat, a Neatness will require: A PALACE claims a more majestick Fire, _That_ made for Decency; for Grandeur _this_, And even Profuseness, may be not amiss.

_Here_ a long vista'd Chain of Rooms of State, To entertain the Attendants on the Great, The glittering Dress, to _catch_ the Gazer's Sight, At once to give Surprise; and to delight.

The GREEKS to three, confined the stated Rules, And only _those_, were known in public Schools; Till Rome the _Tuscan_, and _Composite_ join'd, To enrich the Art, and to improve Mankind, From these alone, all _Modes_, all ORDERS spring To build a _Cell_, or _Palace_ for a KING.

First the grave DORICK Mode; for Use was form'd, When in its Infant-State, and unadorn'd: 'Twas Entertainment for the _sager_ Few, And pleas'd the Times, till something started new: Then the gay, _Lydian Mode_; in Order rose, And Art to Art, they wantonly oppose: For Men grew fickle by Prosperity, Study'd new Arts, and Ease and Luxury.

At length the rich CORINTHIAN's gayer Dress The Artist's Decorations, well express.

The GOTHS first introduc'd the frantick Way Of forming Apes, or _Monsters_, wild as they Because the Tumult, fond of Tricks and Apes, Lov'd such Variety, and antick Shapes.

But K----T has no Excuse, to copy these, Unless he has; NO other Way to please.

The _Modern_ Artists, all their Genius show In a _Venetian-Window_, or a Bow.

The _Cell_, the _Temple_, _Palace_, _Villa_, all } Must have a Window, they _Venetian_ call, } Or Bow; to grace a _Grotto_, or a _Hall_. }

A _little_ Structure; built for Use alone, Requires no Dress, nor Ornament of Stone: The _Plainest_, _Neatest_, Method is the best: One simple Modus, governs all the rest.

The _Villa_ next with Ornament you blend; The _gay_ and _pleasing_ through the whole extend; The TEMPLE, or the GAYER-PALACE will, In Decoration, try your utmost Skill.

Learn of PALLADIO, how to deck a s.p.a.ce; Of JONES you'll learn Magnificence, and Grace: CAMPBELL will teach, the Beauty they impart; And GIBBS, the Rules and Modus of the Art: Keep still these Rules, and Methods, in your Sight; Read them by Day, and meditate by Night.

But V--B--H was admir'd, in _Anna_'s Days, And even his _Blenheim_, would excite some Praise.

And H--S--R travell'd in the same _dull_ Road, And trod the Footsteps, which his _Master_ trod: But BOYLE and PEMBROKE, have the Art restor'd; And _distant_ Ages will their Fame record.

See the old GOTHS, in K----'s Designs survive; And Modern FOOLS, to imitate his strive: Renouncing all the _Rules_ the ROMANS had, Are past reclaiming, obstinately mad.

Drunken N--C-A, with a Front direct, Or stupid B----S, makes such an Architect; Unhappy I!----But _Fortune_ stept between: And proper _Physick_ cur'd me of the Spleen.

And now I'm satisfy'd to keep my Sense: Make RULES my Guide, to plead in my Defence: Give to the _Roman Sciences_ their Due: And _write_, to whet that Appet.i.te, in you.

Tell what the Duty of a BUILDER is, Point out what's _Right_ in Practice; what's amiss.

Shew _where_, and _how_ to decorate with Skill, What _Ornaments_ are just, and what are ill.

Shew how the _Judgment_, should conduct the Art, And where _Judiciousness_, directs the Part; Where proper _Situation_ claims our Care; Where RULES should guide; and where most _useful_ are.

The ARCHITECT, all Ranks of Men should know, And when, and where, to bid his Genius flow To swell the _Rules_, for MAJESTY, and State, To equal all the Grandeur of the Great; To serve the Use of SENATORS, or KINGS, And be the Source, from whence all _Science_ springs.

Sometimes in _old_ Designs, you _Grandeur_ view, And even in _Negligence_, find something new.

But modern Youth are taught to _sing_, and _dance_, And learn the FOLLIES, and the _Modes_ of _France_; Neglecting _Method_, _Order_, _Time_, or _Sense_, With all their JARGON, and their _Modes_ dispense.

They make the _Dorick_, and _Corinthian_ mix; And with th' _Ionian_, the _Composite_ fix.

The _Grave_ and _Gay_, in one long Range extend; And with the _Solemn_, the _Profusive_ blend.

Can Structures, built by such a _Builder_, live?

Will _A--f--y_, think you; _C--p--n_ survive?

Will _O--k--y_, _B----s_, and some whom I could name?

Whose Works already; d.a.m.n them into Fame.

Will they, or _not_, all Rules, all Modes deface.

Invert all ORDER, and the Art _disgrace_?

Will _B--f--w_; _M--d--n_; FOOLS by Nature made Will they encrease, or will they ruin Trade?

'Tis you, MY LORD, who know your Judgment's Height, Your Precepts, and Instructions, are of Weight; Clear, and succinct, the _lower Cla.s.s_ to teach, And oft, above the _towring_ Artists Reach; Where the gay Ornament you please to place, And where it gives a _Majesty_ and Grace.

These are the _Rules_, will live in _future_ Days, The Youth's Director, and the _Poet's Lays_, 'Tis these will shine when in Oblivion lay'd: The GOTHS forgotten, and the MODERNS dead.

The skillful Archer, may his Aim mistake; And the best Hand in Musick, Jarring make: So that, the Frailty of our Nature will, Excuse as Accident, nor construe ill.

But if the Impertinent, their _Faults_ are told, And _still_ persist; and _still_, their Follies hold: Let them _abandon'd_, _senseless_, _stupid_ be, And, past reclaiming, still be DULL for me.

In some great Structures, _Lowness_ is exprest; And SLEEP even sometimes, HOMER lull'd to Rest; _Building_, like _Painting_, proper Point of Sight, Requires to view it, in its clearest Light; And some tho' aim'd at _Grandeur_; or at Ease, Even please but _once_, and some will EVER please.

But yet, _my Lord_, this _one_ important Truth, This Law of _Science_, which we teach our Youth, Even THIS, no Mediocrity admit, _Rules_, _Nature_, _Reason_, all must jointly fit: A _Painter_ may RAPHAEL's Judgment want, And yet, we some Abilities will grant: He may, perhaps, a skillful Painter be, Tho' not so great, yet great in some Degree.

In BUILDING, there's no _Laws_ of human Kind, Admit a _Medium_; to the Artist's Mind, _All_ must be perfect, or 'tis understood, Excessive _Ill_,--or else sublimely _Good_.

In Things where Reason, seems but to subside, Men learn to stem, the Torrent of the _Tide_; They _dance_, or _fence_, or vainly wish to _fly_, But if they fail, contented cease to try.

But all in BUILDING, universal run, Undoing others, and themselves undone.

Oh B----LE! or S--N--PE, P--M-KE; any Name, That ARTS, or VIRTUE; raises into Fame, Be to my _Muse_ a Friend; a.s.sist my Cause; Be Friend to _Science_, fix'd on _Nature_'s Laws.

On that alone, on _Nature_'s perfect Plan, I form my SYSTEM, as I FIRST began.

By YOU inspir'd, I boldly lay the Line, And ev'n am vain to call the Subject mine.

So ORPHEUS, once by more than human Sway, Tam'd _savage Beasts_, or Men as wild as they; And when AMPHION, built the THEBAN WALL, The Stones, by Magick Power, obey'd his Call.

So _Ancient_, even in EGYPT's pristine State, Recorded ARCHITECTURE, has its Date.

Since thus, my Lord; what G.o.dS and KINGS inspire, _What_ bids my Bosom glow with _arduous_ Fire; This _n.o.ble Art_, disdain not to protect; If not the Art, at least the ARCHITECT.

If _Art_, or _Nature_, form'd me what I am; If one or both, a.s.sisted in the Plan, It is beyond, my utmost Power to say: Whether I _Art_, or _Nature_'s Laws obey.

Without each other, we in vain should strive; To BUILD, or keep the SCIENCES alive; _Each_ mutually a.s.sist, and _each_ will need, The other's Help, as NATURE has decreed.

He that intends an _Architect_ to be, Must seriously deliberate, like me; Must see the _Situation_, _Mode_ and _Form_, Of every _Structure_, which they would adorn: All Parts _External_, and _Internal_, view; Before they aim to raise, a something new.

Ask _G----s_, or _F--tc--t_, to correct your Plan, They'll freely, where you err, instruct the Man, In what's amiss, with Judgment, and with Care, Where needful _add_; and where profusive; _spare_.

But if you selfish; foolishly defend; Your glaring Faults, and will not strive to mend, To his own Folly----leave the Wretch alone, And without Rival, let him BLUNDER on.

Those Things which seem of little Consequence, And slight and trivial; know; you some time hence, When you are made ridiculous; will find, They are important, and instruct the Mind: If in a _Building Fit_, a FRANTIC Man: Should _wildly_ scheme, a bad, or monstrous Plan, Not minding _where_, or _how_, or _what_, to lay, For a Foundation, or his _Workmen_ pay: If he should find, a Prison for his Pains, (Misfortune justly suited to his Brains) No one would _pity_, or _condole_ his Fate, But think he merited, the _Bedlam-State_.

EMPEDOCLES, with Madness sought the Flame, And thought by that; to gain immortal _Fame_.

Let ARCHITECTS, and BUILDERS, _mad_ as they, In Folly; run, and make themselves away; Why should it be a _Sin_, such Men to kill, More than to keep alive, against their Will?

It was not _Chance_, but _Choice_, the Poet made, To seek _Divinity_, in LETHE's Shade; For if he was, from PLUTO's _Sable Plain_, Return'd to _Earth_,----He'd aeTNA seek again.