238 Contemporary Evolution. 





while such buttresses become, in the pointed style, objects 

 of beauty no less than of utility, in the architecture of 

 Italy they have no avowed place, and may be, as in 

 S. Paul's cathedral, concealed by an elaborate screen of 

 stone, which is doubly mendacious, since it denies the ex- 

 istence of constructions which it exists only to hide, and 

 at the same time tends to delude the observer as to the 

 real height of the walls, the altitude of which it falsifies by 

 exaggeration. In gothic architecture, wherever a door 

 or a window is really wanted, there it is placed. It is not 

 denied or disguised, but made manifest, and at the same 

 time ornamental. 



It would be easy to adduce a multitude of examples, 

 but these are sufficient to illustrate the principle which 

 is here maintained ; namely, that a temple of the God 

 who has given us our reason no less than our aesthetic 

 instincts, and who is truth itself, should be both eminently 

 " rational " and thoroughly " true." 



Recapitulating, then, our short examination of the fit- 

 ness for church architecture of the two styles, gothic and 

 Italian, it seems that neither one nor the other can be 

 deemed free from very serious objections. 



But is there no alternative ? Are we externally to os- 

 cillate from gothic to Italian, and from Italian to gothic ? 

 Has the Church come to the end of her architectural 

 powers of expression after passing from the catacombs 

 through the basilica to the pointed minster, and back to 



