EXPRESSION IN ARCHITECTURE. 



has assuredly never been so applied as to fully exhibit its intrinsic beaut}^ in modern Eu- 

 ropean design. 



Towers, though no longer needed for defence, are useful in expression — they signify 

 strength and durability, and may be used to indicate a purpose that is deep-laid in our 

 nature, paramovnit and indestructible. Colonnades are indispensable to the production of 

 tlie more elegant and magnificent qualities. Gables, roofs, and chimneys are not to be for- 

 gotten or neglected. Every necessary part or feature may become a valuable element of 

 expression and power. Order and style of architecture are means of expression; we are 

 no more bound to one style than to one of the ancient orders of architecture. One is ge- 

 nerally better for indicating a given purpose than another. I believe that one indissoluble 

 chain unites all true styles of architecture wherever they have been developed — which are 

 but a harmonious variet}'^ of one type. Those who suppose that only the picturesque Tudor 

 will be a Hivorite in England for domestic purposes, forget the flexibility of the human 

 mind. 



Rustication must also be considered as architectural lauguage; and the prohibition of 

 its use would be an unnecessary and irrational limitation of the means of variety and sig- 

 nificance. Rustics were much used by the Romans, among whom they were chiefly de- 

 voted to the grottoes of the rural deities; and among us they may be made the means of 

 beautjr and power. They give vitality to a wall or pier, and are susceptible in themselves 

 of many shades of expression. They secure relief to adjacent pilasters, and give brillian- 

 cy, and delicacy, and value — bj^ means of contrast — to the upper portions of edifices, 

 when employed in basements, to which, as they suggest ideas of strength, they are pecu- 

 liarly fitted. If stones can be put together in a beautiful or expressive manner, and that 

 they can be and have been, none I think will deny, there appears to me no harm in mak- 

 ing that manner so prominent as that attention will be drawn to it. 



The character of a building depends on the choice of material employed, whether brick 

 or stone; or its description, as texture, color, quality; and its disposition or arrangement. 

 Quality of workmanship is also something towards indicating a building's destination. 

 Character may be modified b}' the manner of executing details, individual mouldings, and 

 other members. Purel}'- geometrical ornament is expressive and poetic, and presents a 

 wide field for imagination: an advantage of such decoration is, its not being seen else- 

 where. We may have forms by drawings upon geometry perfectly unique, that do not 

 exist entire in nature; and a new creation, so to speak, is thus called up — 



All independent -world. 



Created out of pure intelligence." 



All purposes of buildings cannot be expressed by equal beauty. The comprehensive- 

 ness of our nature enables us to embrace every shade of character and every phasis of beau- 

 ty, and fits us to sympathise with truthful manifestation of thought and feeling wherever 

 seen. The arrangement, as Avell as the choice and design of ornaments, is an important 

 point. Concentration is an element of power, but whether ornament be concentrated on 

 particular and important features, or dispersed over the whole facade, depends upon the 

 invariable laws of composition and design, and the influence of the idea that seeks to be 

 expres.scd. The two sister arts of Painting and Sculpture, in their higher manifestations, 

 are also among the architect's due resources for characterising his productions; for statu- 

 ary, bassi relievi, or pictures, when properly applied to the embellishment of architecture, 

 are part of the building, which would be incomplete without them, and therefore they are 

 tectural members or features, in not too broad a view of the art : used as for as they 

 demanded by the architect to carry out his idea, they are architectural embellishments ; 



