206 GOTHIC AND NOT GOTHIC. 



most graceful figures, have still all the heaviness 

 of lumpish matter about them. The columns seem 

 pressed by the architrave; and if that is over- 

 loaded, or the columns too far asunder, the build- 

 ing, however graceful the individual parts, however 

 costly the materials, and however exquisite the 

 workmanship, is painful to look upon, because we 

 feel as though it were unstable, and about to be 

 crushed by its own weight. Even if it is a circu- 

 lar arch, we feel apprehensions for its stability if 

 it exceeds a certain span, though we have the 

 rainbow and the sky to give us impressions of 

 the stability of the circle; but in the case of those 

 logarithmic curves, we never feel that a large span 

 is less stable than the very smallest. 



Here there is one consideration which, though 

 it cannot be said directly to belong to the obser- 

 vation of nature, is yet worthy of a little medita- 

 tion. It is this : The Grecian and Roman archi- 

 tecture, which probably carries the proportions of 

 material form as far as they can be carried in re- 

 spect of beauty, just as the statues of their gods 

 and goddesses carried the proportions of the 

 human figure to a degree even of ideal perfection, 

 that architecture and that statuary were the art 

 of a people whose gods were material, the per- 

 fection of material gods, if you will ; just as the 

 architecture and sculpture were the perfection of 

 those arts ; but still the gods have the idea of ma- 

 terial beings inseparable from them, just as much 

 as it is impossible to separate the idea of weight 

 and pressure from a Grecian or a Roman building. 

 On the other hand, the logarithmic curve belongs 

 to Christian architecture, to the true religion to 

 that religion whose God is a Spirit; and there- 



