318 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



those times. That person, who from ignorance or preju- 

 dice, foolishly supposes there is no architecture but that of 

 the Greeks, would do well to study one of these unrivalled 

 specimens of human skill. In so doing, unless he closes his 

 eyes ao-ainst the evidences of his senses, he cannot but admit 

 that there is far more genius and nice mathematical skill 

 evinced in one of these cathedrals, than would have been 

 requisite in the construction of the most celebrated of the 

 Greek temples. Though they may not exhibit that simpli- 

 city and harmony of proportion which Grecian buildings dis- 

 play, they abound in much higher proofs of genius, as is 

 evinced in the conception and execution of these fabrics, so 

 abounding in unrivalled sublimity, variety, and beauty. 



Gothic architecture, in its purity, was characterized mainly 

 by the pointed arch. This novel feature in architecture, 

 which, probably, in the hands of artists of great mathemat- 

 ical skill, was suggested by the inefficiency of the Roman 

 arch first used, has given rise to all the superior boldness and 

 picturesqueness of this style compared with the Grecian ; for 

 while the Greek artist was obliged to cover his narrow open- 

 ing with architraves, or solid blocks of stone, resting on col- 

 umns at short intervals, thus filling up his open space, the 

 Gothic artist, by a single span of his pointed arch, resting on 

 distant pillars, kept the whole area beneath, free and unen- 

 cumbered. Applied, too, to openings for the admission of 

 light, which were deemed of comparatively little or no im- 

 portance by the Greeks, the arch was of immense value, ma- 

 king it possible to pierce the solid wall with large and lofty 

 apertures, that diff'used a magic brilliancy of light, in the 

 otherwise dim and shadowy interior. 



We have here adverted to the Gothic cathedral, (as we 

 did to the Greek temple,) as exhibiting the peculiar style in 



