Turning to the plan (Plate I.) and to the measurements (page 37), we
find the north and south faces measure 105 Greek feet, the east and
west 84 feet—together, 378 feet; each angle measures across 7 ft. 6
in., and adding this 30 feet to the above, we obtain the total of
408, or 3 feet too short. This slight difference, however, is easily
accounted for. That dimension is taken over the waist of the pedestals,
and by allowing 4 inches for the projection of the plinth, which is
a very probable amount of projection, we get the exact dimension of
411 feet we are seeking for, as measured on the upper step of the
building, which is where we should naturally look for it. Not only,
therefore, does this offer no difficulty, but it is a most satisfactory
confirmation of all that has been urged before.
CONCLUSION.
On some future occasion it may be worth while to go more fully into all
the minor details of this important building, and to illustrate it to a
greater extent than has been attempted in this short treatise; not only
because it was the building which the ancients, who ought to have been
the best judges, admired most of all their architectural treasures, but
because it is the one which illustrates best the principles on which
their great buildings were designed.
It might, therefore, be well worth while to treat it as a typical
example and use it to illustrate not only the principles of Greek
design in general, but more particularly to explain the doctrine of
harmonic proportions in accordance with which they all were designed,
and of which it is, in so far as we at present know, the most perfect
example the knowledge of which has come down to our times.
All that has been attempted on the present occasion is, to point out
the main broad features of harmonic proportion which governed the
principal dimensions of the building; but the “order” was also full
of minute and delicate harmonies worthy of the most intense study.
To elucidate these something more is required than a hap-hazard
restoration, such as that which is found in the plates attached to Mr.
Newton’s work, with the superinduced confusion of the lithographers’
inaccuracies. Every fragment requires re-examination, and every part
re-measurement; but to do this requires not only unlimited access to
the remains, but power to move and examine, which would not, of course,
be granted, to me at least. But if it were done, and if the details
were published, with the really good specimens of the sculpture, all
of which are omitted from Mr. Newton’s present publication, the public
might then come to understand what the Mausoleum really was, and why
the ancients admired it so much.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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