362 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



vertical columns : when the arch was introduced by 

 the Romans, it was concealed, or kept in state of 

 subordination: and the lateral support which it 

 required was supplied latently, masked by some 

 artifice. But the struggle between the mechanical 

 and the decorative construction^, ended in the com- 

 plete disorganization of the classical style. The in- 

 consistencies and extravagancies, of which we have 

 noticed the occurrence, were results and indications 

 of the fall of good architecture. The elements of 

 the ancient system had lost all principle of con- 

 nexion and regard to rule. Building became not 

 only a mere art, but an art exercised by masters 

 without skill, and without feeling for real beauty (o). 

 When, after this deep decline, architecture rose 

 again, as it did in the twelfth and succeeding cen- 

 turies, in the exquisitely beautiful and skilful forms 

 of the Gothic style, what was the nature of the 

 change which had taken place, so far as it bears 

 upon the progress of science? It was this: the 

 idea of true mechanical relations in an edifice had 

 been revived in men's minds, as far as was requisite 

 for the purposes of art and beauty: and this, though 

 a very different thing from the possession of the 

 idea as an element of speculative science, was the 

 proper preparation for that acquisition. The notion 

 of support and stability again became conspicuous 

 in the decorative construction, and universal in the 



5 See Mr. Willis's admirable Remarks on the Architecture of 

 the Middle Ages, chap. ii. 



