arches, supported by pilasters (never by columns).  Villa Porro, Lago di Como, is a good example of this method.  The arches hardly ever exceed three in number, and these are all of the same size, so that the crowns of the arches continue the horizontal lines of the rest of the building.  Were the center one higher than the others, these lines would be interrupted, and a great deal of simplicity lost.  The covered space under these arches is a delightful, shaded, and breezy retreat in the heat of the day; and the entrance doors usually open into it, so that a current of cool air is obtainable by throwing them open.

123.  The building itself consists of three floors:  we remember no instance of a greater number, and only one or two of fewer.  It is, in general, crowned with a light balustrade, surmounted by statues at intervals.  The windows of the uppermost floor are usually square, often without any architrave.  Those of the principal floor are surrounded with broad architraves, but are frequently destitute of frieze or cornice.  They have usually flat bands at the bottom, and their aperture is a double square.  Their recess is very deep, so as not to let the sun fall far into the interior.  The interval between them is very variable.  In some of the villas of highest pretensions, such as those on the banks of the Brenta, that of Isola Bella, and others, which do not face the south, it is not much more than the breadth of the two architraves, so that the rooms within are filled with light.  When this is the case, the windows have friezes and cornices.  But, when the building fronts the south, the interval is often very great, as in the case of the Villa Porro.  The ground-floor windows are frequently set in tall arches, supported on deeply engaged pilasters as in the Villa Somma-Riva.  The door is not large, and never entered by high steps, as it generally opens on a terrace of considerable height, or on a wide landing-place at the head of a flight of fifty or sixty steps descending through the gardens.

124.  Now, it will be observed, that, in these general forms, though there is no splendor, there is great dignity.  The lines throughout are simple to a degree, entirely uninterrupted by decorations of any kind, so that the beauty of their proportions is left visible and evident.  We shall see hereafter that ornament in Grecian architecture, while, when well managed, it always adds to its grace, invariably takes away from its majesty; and that these two attributes never can exist together in their highest degrees.  By the utter absence of decoration, therefore, the Italian villa, possessing, as it usually does, great beauty of proportion, attains a degree of elevation of character, which impresses the mind in a manner which it finds difficult to account for by any consideration of its simple details or moderate size; while, at the same time, it lays so little claim to the attention, and is so subdued in its character, that it is enabled