Archimedes Texts

The whole Force of the Invention and
all our Skill and Knowledge in the Art
of Building, is required in the Compartition:
Because the distinct Parts of the entire Building,
and, to use such a Word, the Entireness of each
of those Parts, and the Union and Agreement of
all the Lines and Angles in the Work, duly
ordered for Convenience, Pleasure and Beauty,
are disposed and measured out by the Com
partition alone: for if a City, according to
the Opinion of Philosophers, be no more than
a great House, and, on the other Hand, a
House be a little City; why may it not be
said, that the Members of that House are so
many little Houses; such as the Court-yard,
the Hall, the Parlour, the Portico, and the
like? And what is there in any of these,
which, if omitted by Carelessness or Negli
gence, will not greatly take from the Praise
and Dignity of the Work. Great Care and
Diligence therefore is to be used in well con
sidering these Things, which so much con
cern the whole Building; and in so ordering
it, that even the most inconsiderable Parts
may not be uncomformable to the Rules of
Art, and good Contrivance. What has been
already said above of the Region and Platform,
may be of no small use in doing of this aptly
and conveniently; and as the Members of the
Body are correspondent to each other, so it is
fit that one Part should answer to another in
a Building; whence we say, that great Edi
fices require great Members. Which indeed
was so well observed by the Ancients, that
they used much larger Bricks, as well as other
Materials, about publick and large Buildings,
than in private ones. To every Member there
fore ought to be allotted its fit Place and pro
per Situation; not less than Dignity requires,
not greater than Conveniency demands; not
in an impertinent or indecent Place, but in a
Situation so proper to itself, that it could be
set no where else more fitly. Nor should the
Part of the Structure, that is to be of the
greatest Honour, be thrown into a remote
Corner; nor that which ought to be the most
publick, into a private Hole; nor that which
should be most private, be set in too conspi
cuous a Place. We should besides have re
gard to the Seasons of the Year, and make a
great deal of Difference between hot Places
and cold, both in Proportions and Situation.
If Rooms for Summer are large and spacious,
and those for Winter more compact, it will
not be at all amiss; the Summer ones shady and
open to the Air, and the Winter ones to the
Sun. And here we should provide, that the
Inhabitants may not be obliged to pass out of
a cold Place into a hot one, without a Medium
of temperate Air; or out of a warm one into
one exposed to Cold and Winds; because no
thing is so prejudicial to human Bodies. And
these ought to agree one Member with ano
ther to perfect and compose the main Design
and Beauty of the whole; that we may not
so lay out our whole Study in adorning one
Part, as to leave the rest neglected and
homely in Comparison of it; but let them
bear that Proportion among themselves, that
they may appear to be an entire and perfect
Body, and not disjointed and unfinished
Members. Moreover in the forming of these
Members too, we ought to imitate the Modesty
of Nature; because in this, as well as in other
Cases, the World never commends a Modera
tion, so much as it blames an extravagant In
temperance in Building. Let the Members
therefore be modestly proportioned, and ne
cessary for your Uses. For all Building in
general, if you consider it well, owes it's
Birth to Necessity, was nursed by Convenience,
and embellished by Use; Pleasure was the
last Thing consulted in it, which is never
truly obtained by Things that are immode
rate. Let your Building therefore be such,
that it may not want any Members which it
has not, and that those which it has, may
not in any Respect deserve to be condemned.
Nor would I have the Edifice terminated all
the Way with even continued Lines void of
all manner of Variety; for some please us by
their Largeness, others with being little, and
others moderate. One Part therefore should
be terminated with strait Lines, another with
curve, and another again with strait and curve
mixed together; provided you observe the
Caution I have so often given you, to avoid
falling into the Error of Excess, so as to seem