Then we are sure of a beautifully proportioned form. Much
variety may be introduced by using different curves; joining parabolas
with cycloids, etc.; but the use of curves is always the best mode of
obtaining good forms.[55]
[Footnote 55: [Compare _Modern Painters_, vol. IV. chap. xvii. Sec. 49, and
_Elements of Drawing_, Letter III.]]
Further ease may be obtained by added combinations. For instance, strike
another curve (_a q b_) through the flat line _a b_; bisect the maximum
_v p_, draw the horizontal _r s_, (observing to make the largest maximum
of this curve towards the smallest maximum of the great curve, to
restore the balance), join _r q_, _s b_, and we have another
modification of the same beautiful form. This may be done in either side
of the building, but not in both.
245. Then, if the flat roof be still found monotonous, it may be
interrupted by garret windows, which must not be gabled, but turned with
the curve _a b_, whatever that may be. This will give instant humility
to the building, and take away any vestiges of Italian character which
might hang about it, and which would be wholly out of place.
The windows may have tolerably broad architraves, but no cornices; an
ornament both haughty and classical in its effect, and, on both
accounts, improper here. They should be in level lines, but grouped at
unequal distances, or they will have a formal and artificial air,
unsuited to the irregularity and freedom around them.
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