1 791* GRECIAN AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 275 



by any line that can mark its receding diftance, and 

 thrown into a deep fhade by the fide pillars, the deep 

 architrave, and projecting cornice that runs uniformly 

 along the whole, gives an idea of a long and fombre 

 vault, a fit receptacle for the tombs of our deceafed an- 

 ceflors. The mafly fquare pillars too, when at a very 

 fmall diftance from the eye, have their parts fo indif- 

 tin£lly marked, as to appear merely one folid wall, 

 forming a long and narrow tube rather than a vifta, 

 terminated by a diftant window; the only ftricking ob- 

 ject in the whole. To this window, the eye is inilinc- 

 tively carried, without marking the intermediate ob- 

 je£ls, as it is to the aperture of the cbjeft-glafs of a 

 tclefcope. Thus it happens, that though the church 

 be, in reality, very large, and the feparate parts of it 

 magnificent ; yet as thefc parts are fo entirely detached 

 from each other, as not to be feen in a conne£led view 

 in any one place the elTeCl is loll, and it is only after 



the divaricating ribs of all tlieir arch?s above, but on tlie Grecian ftde 

 lie could fee only three window?, and one of thefe very flightly ii:dee4. 

 'i'he one flruiSlure, therefore, from this point of view, muft appear greatly 

 larger, more diftinfl and lighter (by which term is here meant kf? 

 heavy or cliimfy, not better illuminated) than the other. 



As to Ughtnefs, properly fo callsd, in oppofition to darknefs, or the de- 

 gree of illumination that each of thefe admits of, the difference in favour 

 of the Gothic ftrudtire is much greater than in regard to the particular h-rc 

 explained. This might be illuftratcd in the fame manner, by drawing 

 lines from the edges of the wiiido .vs to the columns and pillars on either 

 fide, and rcprcfenting the ftiades produced in either ftdes by lines c^ 

 different tents; but this, to be properly done would requiix feveral 

 plates, and would after all appear fo complicated, as tn be intellcgible, 

 wnly to a few. Men acquainted witli fpeculations of this fort, can ca- 

 lily fatisfy themfclves in this manner, by an aflual diagram of every 

 particular rtfpeAing this cirjumftan:e, but one, which is, thj making 

 allowance for the windows in the middle nef of the Gothic buildini^, 

 which are totally excluded from the Grecian. When all thefe particu- 

 J:irs are conjoined together, it will no longer appear furprifiny, that the 

 cnc ihoukl appear fo fpacirius, light, exhilcrating, and cheat ful in com- 

 parifon of the other, though the real dimcnfions (hould be the fame in 

 both ; and the quantity of materials confumcd on the Grecian plan, and 

 the expencc of building it, be inconceiveably greater than on the Gothic. 



N. B. Thecnjr.ivcr has, by miflakc, made the columns too fmall. 



M ?, 



