“To the eye as to science,” says M. Burnouf, “the stability of the body increases with the extent of the base. The interior walls of the cella (or sanctum) of the Parthenon were slightly inclined towards each other; the columns of the peristyle were likewise inclined inward, and the same was the case with the columns at the angles. The whole structure thus received the form of a truncated pyramid which gave an appearance of great solidity.”
The inclinations thus mentioned were vertical. A slight curve was given horizontally to the floor or platform on which the temple stands, and it is found to extend outward in all directions from the point which indicates the centre.
All parts of the temple are made to correspond to this curve which is very slight, only a few half inches in a distance of a hundred feet—but at the same time sufficient to give a most harmonious and pleasing effect.
The earliest Greek temples do not have these curves, but they are found in all the later ones, so that the time of their introduction can be determined with reasonable accuracy.
It is supposed that the Greek artists arrived at the use of these curves by a careful study of nature. The straight line is a geometric abstraction which is never found in nature. The horizon is curved in consequence of the spherical form of the earth; the sea, a mountain range, or a plain, assumes a curve when we look at it from a distance, and a long line of coast will appear arched like a bow when we approach it.
Undoubtedly the Greeks gave these horizontal curves to the bases and super-structures of their temples in an effort to imitate nature. Hogarth in the last century laid down the law that the curve was the line of beauty; he was not aware that the principle had been discovered ages and ages ago by the Greeks.
For fear that I have not made my explanation clear enough to everyone let me illustrate:
We all know the earth is round—I demonstrated that to my own satisfaction by travelling steadily west until I reached home—and so many persons have done likewise since the days of Sir Francis Drake, the first circumnavigator, that the rotundity of the earth is everywhere accepted and understood Now if the whole earth is round, it follows naturally that any part of it is curved in proportion to its extent.
Is there a pond in your neighborhood a mile in diameter?
“Yes.”