ABSTRACT
The study of Architecture, having been carried by our ancestors to the highest pitch of perfection, seems now in decline, and returning again to barbarism. What irregularities in columns, in architraves, in pediments, in cupolas; and above all what extravagance in ornaments! One would think that ornaments are used in works of architecture, not to embellish them, but to render them ugly. I know indeed that in this caprice those for whom the buildings are made has often more part than the architect who makes the design.
