450. ARCHITECTURE, Virginia Capitol.—[continued].
We took for our model
what is called the Maison quarrée of Nismes,
one of the most beautiful, if not the most
beautiful and precious morsel of architecture
left us by antiquity. It was built by Caius and
Lucius Cæsar, and repaired by Louis XIV., and
has the suffrage of all the judges of architecture
who have seen it, as yielding to no one of the
beautiful monuments of Greece, Rome, Palmyra
and Balbec, which late travellers have communicated
to us. It is very simple, but it is noble
beyond expression, and would have done honor
to our country, as presenting to travellers a
specimen of taste in our infancy, promising
much for our maturer age.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. i, 432.
(P.
1785)
