PROPORTION.—The magnitude of one part as compared with some other. The term ‘proportion’ is used absolutely in the sense of ‘good proportion;’ although every thing that has shape has proportions of some kind or other. The subject of Proportions has been greatly mystified by writers who have laid down certain fixed proportions as the best of all on every occasion, and as the _ne plus ultra_ of artistic taste. But fixed proportions can be followed mechanically by every one alike; whereas it requires ability to deviate successfully from routine measurement, and apply the _poco piu_ or the _poco meno_ as the particular occasion or the particular effect aimed at may require—at least justify. It is the eye that takes cognizance of proportions; and the Architect’s own eye ought to be quite as correct as that of other people. PROSTYLE.—A portico which projects from the body of a building, or the rest of a façade. See page 69. PULVINATED.—A frieze whose face is convex instead of plain is said to be _pulvinated_, from its supposed resemblance to the side of a cushion, which swells out when pressed upon. See page 50. RAKING CORNICES.—A term, rather unmeaning in itself, applied to the inclined cornices on the sloping sides of a pediment. RUSTICATION.—Although Rustication is not spoken of in this treatise, the term is here inserted for the purpose of remarking that what is so called might frequently be more correctly described as _Decorative Masonry_, since, so far from expressing rudeness or coarseness, it may be made to display the most studied nicety and elaborate finish. Rustication, no doubt, originated in a very rude mode of construction; but what was at first clumsiness and irregularity, was afterwards refined into an artful and symmetrical disposition of the stones and courses of masonry, by a similar æsthetic process to that which converted the original amorphous stone pillar into the Doric column. To call such masonry, as some have done, only _cicatrizing_ and _gashing_, betrays a loss for both arguments and words. Decorative masonry is most assuredly not according to Greek taste or practice; for the Greeks affected to suppress the appearance of _articulation_ in masonry, and thereby to give their buildings, as far as possible, the look of not being _fabricated_, but _carved_ out of one block of solid material. Yet it does not therefore follow that the other mode of decidedly articulating and pronouncing the joints