“In this country, allotting different spots for sacred purposes, they began to erect temples, the first of which was dedicated to Apollo Panionios, and resembled that which they had seen in Achaia, and they gave it the name of Doric, because they had first seen that species in the cities of Doria. As they wished to erect this temple with columns, and had not a knowledge of the proper proportions of them, nor knew the way in which they ought to be constructed, so as at the same time to be both fit to carry the superincumbent weight and to produce a beautiful effect, they measured a man’s foot, and, finding its length the sixth part of his height, they gave the column a similar proportion—that is, they made its height, including the capital, six times the thickness of the shaft, measured at the base. Thus the Doric order obtained its proportion, its strength, and its beauty from the human figure. “Under similar notions they afterward built the temple of Diana, but in that, seeking a new proportion, they used the female figure as the standard; and for the purpose of producing a more lofty effect they first made it eight times its thickness in height. Under it they placed a base, after the manner of a shoe to the foot; they also added volutes to its capital, like graceful, curling hair, on each side, and the front they ornamented with cymatia and festoons in the place of hair. On the shafts they sunk channels, which bear a resemblance to the folds of a matronal garment. Thus two orders were invented, one of a masculine character, without ornament, the other bearing a character which resembled the delicacy, ornament and proportion of a female. “The successors of these people, improving in taste, and preferring a more slender proportion, assigned seven diameters to the height of the Doric column and eight and a half to the Ionic. That species, of which the Ionians were the inventors, has received the appellation of Ionic. [Illustration: THE ORIGIN OF THE CORINTHIAN CAPITAL.]