EXPRESSION IN ARCHITECTURE. 



mon plums are almost unknown. The trees stand in a soil the best adapted for the nur- 

 sery off all kinds of insects, being warm, dry, and sandy. 



I have observed that the syiinging not only checked the ravages of the curculio them- 

 selves, but destroyed the vitality of their eggs deposited, and thus insures the fruit, even 

 though it had the scar of the puncture already upon it. Truly yours, 



Thos. W. Ludlow, Jr. 



Yonkers, N. Y., AJigvst 12, 1851. 



We are glad to get so straight-forward an account of a successful experiment, from a 

 correspondent who is a pains-taking horticulturist, and whose accuracy ma}' be relied on. 

 It will be remembered that some of the lime-wash experiments have failed — but so far as 

 we know, Mr. Ludlow's addition of sulphur is new, and may prove more effectual. Ed. 



ON EXPRESSION IN ARCHITECTURE. 



BY S. H.— FROM THE LONDON BUILDER. 



A GREAT part of the diiBculty in reference to decorative expression arises from our con- 

 tracting too much the field of our resources, from a neglect of many sources from which 

 the fibres of architecture should be nourished. Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, Romans, 

 Venetians, and our own mediaeval architects, drew their inspiration from the highest foun- 

 tains then open to them; and we see the poet and the orator ransack all nature, existing 

 art, and science, for similies and metaphors Mherewith to vivify their works. Now architec- 

 ture, to be a living art, and reflect to posterity the divine of humanity, must do likewise: 

 it must move with the general march of mind, and grow with the increase of knowledge: 

 it must digest every improvement in science, and draw its vitality and power from every 

 accessible source. 



The entire language of architecture is really a copious one: all nature, animate and in- 

 animate, and all extant art, offer themselves as models to the architect. The botanist, 

 the geologist, the naturalist, the chemist, the archteologist, — all explorers and expounders 

 of nature, of history, and of art, are, though they may not be aware of it, benefactors 

 to architecture; but their gifts have been but partially applied to the enrichment of the 

 poetry or the strengthening of the expressive faculties of the art. 



Modern sculpture, as applied to architecture as well as sculpture generally, has, I am 

 well aware, a different province to that of the ancients, which was to express the natural 

 idea of their deities as promulgated by the poets, and which was conceived after the ana- 

 logy of humanity. The Greek sculptures are hieroglyphics of Pagan theology : the gods 

 of the Greeks partook of the character of men, and coming within the shade of human 

 passion, and actuated by human motives, they admitted of personal representation. As 

 we conceive of the Deity in a totally different manner, as filling immensity and "inhabit- 

 ing eternity," no graven image, however warm with the fire of genius, will answer to our 

 ideas. "\Ye must, therefore, be careful how we draw from heathen mythology for the em- 

 bellishment and illustration of Christian churches. 



Objects emploj^ed in Pagan rites are unfit emblems for such structures; but Christiani- 

 ty has its own subjects and sacred objects of illustration, which may be iipplied to the 

 classic architecture as well as to the Gothic. In the sculpture, painting, stained glass, 

 the middle ages, the patriarchs, apostles, and saints were distinguished by 

 iar attributes, or by some particular circumstance allusive to sacred history, just 



