200 THE LOGARITHMIC CURVE. 



balanced, and would float in the air even though the 

 walls and upright pillars were removed. St. George's 

 chapel is one of many instances of that most sub- 

 lime and most natural of all styles of architecture.; 

 and there cannot be a better material incentive to 

 religious feeling than the view of a roof which even 

 to common observation is independent of gravitation 

 the test and characteristic of everything material. 

 The pendant drops which belong to the same style 

 of architecture have the same aerial and floating 

 character, just because the curves by means of 

 which they melt into the ceilings are logarithmic 

 curves ; and it is not a little remarkable that when 

 two pieces of flat glass are placed on edge in a 

 coloured liquid, with their one ends touching, and 

 their other ends a little asunder, the coloured liquid 

 rises between them, so that its upper edge forms the 

 same kind of curve ; and that is a proof that, if we 

 could see it, the column of evaporated moisture 

 would have the same beautiful and self-balanced 

 appearance. 



It may seem not a little singular that the Catholic 

 architects should have applied to the roofs of their 

 churches that very curve, by assuming which water 

 hangs poised in the air; and that consideration alone 

 should teach us to pause before we arrogate to our- 

 selves, in these modern times, the perfection of all 

 science. Columns and an architrave, proportion 

 them as we will, and sculpture them as we may with 

 the richest foliage and the most graceful figures, 

 have still all the heaviness of lumpish matter about 

 them. The columns seem pressed by the archi- 

 trave ; and if that is overloaded, or the columns too 

 far asunder, the building, however graceful the indi- 

 vidual parts, however costly the materials, and 

 however exquisite the workmanship, is painful to 

 look upon, because we feel as though it were unsta- 

 ble, and about to be crushed by its own weight. Even 

 if it is a circular arch, we feel apprehensions for its 



