BEAUTY, &C., IN ARCHITECTURE. 203 



the present day, we know that a building of hard bricks covered 

 with cement is stronger and more durable than one of our modern 

 stone buildings, because the bricks, forming one homogeneous mass, 

 will sink or settle equally, but, in the stone erection, more mortar 

 being used on the inside than on the outside of the walls, the inside 

 will sink the most. When this fact becomes generally known and 

 acted upon, a cement building will be more expressive of strength 

 than a stone one. 



Secondly, The expression of Jitness as regards construction. Of 

 this we will speak presently. 



Thirdly, The expression of design. Of this there are two kinds: 

 the first, and least lasting, may be simply but correctly defined as 

 novelty of form. The second kind is a sort of improvement on Na- 

 ture, and is the setting a marked difference between the work of 

 genius and art and a mere imitation. A good imitation of Nature 

 is always curious, but, to sensitive pei'sons, frequently painful. No 

 one thinks of comparing the beauty of a statue of stone or marble 

 with that of a wax figure. In statues especially the artist has the 

 power of preserving the unity of expression in every limb, feature, 

 and muscle, which in Nature is seldom the case. Flowers and foli- 

 age should always have an artificial arrangement, and should look 

 (as Mr. Loudon expresses it) " sculpturesque" to partake of this 

 expression. 



Fourthly, The expression of Jitness in the parts to attain the end in 

 vietv, or to produce the expression of character. 



Fifthly, The expression of character, without which there can be 

 no permanent beauty. It is an expression very difficult to explain, 

 and one that applies to an edifice considered as a whole. The build- 

 ings of the ancients and the middle ages have this expression in a 

 very great degree ; but I imagine much of it arises from the fact of 

 each age having had its own peculiar style of Architecture ; so that 

 in addition to the character they originally expressed, all our asso- 

 ciations connected with the characters of their respective ages are 

 vividly recalled. This expression and the preceding one are inti- 

 mately connected. Beauty exists in proportion to the unity of 

 the expression of character in all the parts. 



Sixthly, The accidental expression, which may last for years or 

 but for an hour — may be caused even by the particular state of the 

 atmosphere or our particular state of mind at the time a place is 

 viewed. This expression is the cause of much difference of opi- 

 nion : some particular feature of a building may accidentally recall 

 peculiar associations of pleasure or pain, and cause a person to like 



VOL. VII., NO. XXII. DD 



