Page viii

EPISTLE DEDIICATORY. 
when archite&ure was but beginning to revive, it might have been regarded
as a 
fort of infult to France, to fhow her 'how remote fhe was, in the conftru&ion
of 
her buildings, from that beauty and magnificence fo corifpicuous in the fru&ures
of ancient Rome. But now, my lord, as by the care you fo generoufly exert,
and by the exquifite tafte you in all things difplay, that miftrefs of other
arts, 
fine and noble archite6lure, has almoft attained her higheff perfeIion ;,I
know 
not if it may not rather be imagined a fort of homage which thofe illuifrious
monuments of antiquity come to pay to the admirable works of our age,- after
acknowledging that the great men who reared them, the Auguftufes, the Trajans
and the Antonines, have yielded the firft place in the temple of glory, to
the 
invincible, the great, and the magnanimous LEWIS. In fad, my lord, as all
the 
virtues military and civil, that have rendered thofe roman emperors fo renowned,
concenter in our incomparable monarch, and that in a higher degree than they
appeared feparately in each of them; will it be too much to fay that whatever
is 
moft beautiful, moft fumptuous and moft magnificent in their great edifices,
proves 
virtually colleded in our works, which according to all appearance will in
a few 
years furpafs them in number, beauty and magnificence? After bleffing heaven
for 
my birth in an age fo full of wonders, and fo fertile in thofe beauties for
'which it 
has given me fuch a love; permit me, my lord, to thank your lordfhip a thoufand
times for cafting eyes upon me, fo as to deign me any fhare in the execution
of 
thofe admirable defigns which you daily meditate for the glory of the greateft
king 
upon earth. Crowned with fuch felicity, nothing remains for me to wifh but
the 
power of acquiring by ftudy and labour, and above all by the glorious advantage
of executing your orders, which fo edify and animate thofe who receive them,
a 
capacity proportioned to the ardour of my zeal, and in fome degree correfpondent
to the ftrong and refpedful paffion, with which I an4 
YL oXD, 
reur lordJhip's lmolhamb/e, mol oeaievt, 
4nd moi oh'gedfervafft, 
A. DESGODETZ.,