ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENTATION. 313 



colonial days and the recent past, there was little praiseworthy 

 in our entrances. With sudden wealth we treated huge blocks 

 of stone as though they were of lace; gave fragile glass the air 

 of protecting a fortress; erected towering pillars that guarded 

 doll's house doors. Disdainful of harmony and proportion, 

 we employed material in a way that was itself a lie. . . . Do 

 not demand that the door shall tell of luxury within. You have 

 the right to expect the old-time hinge, strong because it is not 

 hidden; welcome because it is beautiful; locks, bolts, and nails 

 that are not ashamed to be seen; doors that shall not be a source 

 of pleasure to the present generation alone. Be prepared to 

 appreciate harmony of design, even in iron, to note how stone 

 and glass and bronze have beautified a necessity." 



With architecture as with other arts and sciences there are 

 simple, natural laws that must be understood; their logical 

 -development in architecture have created authenticated orders 

 and styles, which attempt to pervert, modify, or amalgamate 

 produces a lack of harmony, symmetry, and repose. 



A proper perception of these truths would prevent many 

 failures. Falling into this error, the celebrated architect, 

 Christopher Wrenn, the designer of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, 

 and many forceful and beautiful architectural examples of the 

 seventeenth century, departed from the "Gothic rudeness" of 

 splendid Westminster Abbey, and, attempting to introduce addi- 

 tional wings of "good Roman" style, perpetuated a failure as 

 the result of an attempt to compel the union of opposite orders, 

 classic in themselves, but unartistic and inharmonious in their 

 combination. 



Such deviation from the principles of correct architectural 

 style are too abundant. Consider the design of one of the prin- 

 cipal buildings of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In- 

 tended as a building for housing exposition exhibits, "it was 

 argued that it should express externally as much friendly dignity 

 as would be compatible with its ephemeral character; that it 



