In things to be seen at once, much variety makes confusion, another vice of beauty. In things that are not seen at once, and have no respect one to another, great variety is commendable, provided this variety transgress not the rules of optics and geometry.

Professor of Astronomy Gresham College London1660. He resigned the former role in 1716 but held the latter until his death approving with a wavering signatureBurlington's revisions of Wren's own earlier designs for the great Archway of Westminster School. Before the end of 1661 Wren was unofficially advising the repair of Old St Paul's Cathedral after two decades of neglect and distress; his architectural interests were also evident to his associates at the time.

Educated in Latin and Aristotelian physics at the University of Oxford Wren was a notable astronomer geometer and mathematician-physicist as well as an architect. The principal creative responsibility for a number of the churches is now more commonly attributed to others in his office especially Nicholas Hawksmoor.