"There is a medium between these, proper for every character, which the eye will easily and accurately determine.
"Thus, if the lines, fig. 70, were to be the measure of the extreme length or breadth, set out either for the figure of a man or a vase, the eye soon sees the longest of these is not quite sufficiently so in proportion to the other for a genteel man, and yet it would make a vase too taper to be elegant; no rule or compasses would decide this matter either so quickly or so precisely as a good eye."
I apprehend that Hogarth intended to have introduced this vase into the second print of his Analysis, but found he had not room; for, on the same piece of paper with the drawing, he thus continues the subject:
"We cannot wonder that many writers should have imagined that the different orders of architecture have been taken from the human form, since both are governed by the same principles of fitness, strength, and beauty.[56] The general opinion that the Corinthian capital was taken from a basket and dock leaves, may be supported on the same grounds."
This leads him to one of his favourite ideas, a new order of architecture.
HINTS FOR A NEW CAPITAL.
DESIGNS FOR CAPITALS.
Three of the examples are selected from the most grotesque and ridiculous objects; the other two from flowers; and the Bohemian feathers seem slight essays to prove what he frequently advanced, that though he considered the ancient orders with reverence, yet being the productions of men, men might without heresy venture to vary from them. He remarks: "That churches, palaces, prisons, common houses, and summer houses might be built more in distinct characters than they are, by contriving orders suitable to each; whereas, were a modern architect to build a palace in Lapland or the West Indies, Palladio must be his guide, nor would he dare to stir a step without his book."