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    It was found agreeable , principally on account of the admiration which simplicity and magnitude raise , when they seenx rather to despise riches and ornament than to want them . It answered its purpose , by its duration and convenience . The whole palace was standing after many hundred years in ali the neatness and perfection which it possessed when the architect laid his last hand to the work . It was not indeed from with- *

    out very easy to perceive its symmetry and proportions ; but within ^ it was full of light , and all the parts were connected to- > gether . They who pretended to be judges of architecture , were

    particularly offended with the exterior appearance , which was in their estimation deformed by a few windows , some great and some small ; round * square and oblong , scattered in different direc * tions . There were on the other hand a great number of doors ^ gates and posterns of different shapes and sizes . They could not conceive how so many apartments could b « sufficiently lighted by so few windows , for it never once occur- *

    red to them , that the principal apartments were furnished with skv lights .

    They could not conceive how so many and such various entrances could be necessary , as one grand portal on each side would have been more becoming , and would have done the same service , fork never once occurredto them , that by means t > f the many little passages , every one who was called into the palace , could go directly , and by the shortest way , to the very place where he might be

    wanted-Hence many a contest arose among these pretended Connoisseurs which were generally carried on with the most warmth by those who had had the fewest opportunities of seeing much of the interior of the palace . In addition to this , there was a something else , which one at first sight might have imagined , would put an easy and short

    end to all controversies , but this on the contrary did but render ¦ t hem more complicated , and furnish occasion for the most obstinate continuance of them . That is , different ancient ground plots were in existence , which were said to have proceeded from the first architects of the palace ; &nd th £ se ground plots were marked with words and figures , the meaning and import of which were as good as lost .

    Every one therefore explained these words and figures at hid own fancy , and busied himself in composing and forming out of those old ground plots , a new ope , to which he was commonly so enthusiastically attached , that he not only swore , himself , to its correctness and truth , but sometimes persuaded , and sometimes compelled others to swear to it likewise .

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    184 A Parable by Lessing .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1806, page 184, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1723/page/16/