Architecture in the United States, 217 



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danger — the great danger ; and I venture to say, that If the Corin- 

 thian hecomes our favorite order, we shall never rise to any emi- 

 nence in architecture. We can take no such certain method of cor- 

 rupting our taste, and of preserving it corrupted, as to encourage this 

 order. But I believe there need be no great fear of its success. It 

 can never be used for churches witli any propriety, and I do not now 

 recollect an instance of its being so used in the country : it must 

 there give way to the otlier orders ; and where these are fairly in- 

 troduced, the Corinthian will sink to its proper rank. It is well suit- 

 ed to edifices of gay character, and there let it remain* A word or 

 two about the fanciful story of its origin, which has sometimes gained 

 it admirers. A basket, it is said, covered with a square tile, was left 

 on the grave of a Corinthian young lady : it chanced to have been 

 placed on an acanthus, and this growing up and curving around the 

 basket, furnished the idea of the capital, called, from this circum- 

 stance, Corinthian. This is pretty enough when we think of the 

 acanthus in its proper place, on the ground, and curving from be- 

 neath a basket of trinkets; but when we transfer it to the top of a 

 pillar, with a heavy entablature above, it is too much at variance 

 wth nature and propriety for the refined age of Pericles, when tlie 

 invention is said to have taken place. It is doubtless originally from 

 Egypt, where columns still exist to which it has a strong rescmblance- 

 They resemble bundles of the stalks of the lotus, the leaves of wliich 

 curving from the upper part, arc formed into a capital- 

 Let us delay a few minutes now to take a hasty review. 

 Grecian Doric — the highest effort of tlie art : characterized by 

 grandeur and majesty: to be employed in all buildings where such 

 an expression is desired ; in churches. In edifices for making or ad- 

 ministering laws ; in the larger banks ; occasionally in colleges and 

 similar institutions ; never in private houses. 



Roman Doric. — ^Its character a pleasing and cheerful dignity : to 

 be used wherever this expression may be desired ; but to be used 



witli caution. 



Grecian Ionic. — Gracefulness its chai^acterlstic : suited to tlie 

 smaller kinds of banks ; to edifices for the exhibition of the arts ; 

 sometimes for college buildings ; and for the larger kind of private 

 dwellings. 



Roman and Modern Ionic— To be used in subservience to the 

 preceding, in order to keep it from being made common, and for the 

 sake of variety : suited to rear porticos and the like. 



Vol. XVIIL— No. 2. 28 



