VITRUVIUS ON GREEK SYMMETRY³

A large, plain serif capital letter 'T' used as a drop cap, spanning three lines of body text.

THE several parts which constitute a temple ought to be subject to the laws of symmetry; the principles of which should be familiar to all who profess the science of architecture. Symmetry results from proportion, which, in the Greek language, is termed analogy. Proportion is the commensuration of the various constituent parts with the whole, in the existence of which symmetry is found to consist. For no building can possess the attributes of composition in which symmetry and proportion are disregarded; nor unless there exists that perfect conformation of parts which may be observed in a well-formed human being. . . . Since, therefore, the human frame appears to have been formed with such propriety that the several members are commensurate with the whole, the artists of antiquity must be allowed to have followed the dictates of a judgment the most rational, when, transferring to the works of art, principles derived from nature, every part was so regulated as to bear a just proportion to the whole. Now, although these principles were universally acted upon, yet they were more particularly attended to in the construction of temples and sacred edifices—the beauties or defects of which were destined to remain as a perpetual testimony of their skill or of their inability.”