A SHORT CHAPTER ON COUNTRY CHURCHES. 263 



line of rationality" In this line, in the regular division of spaces, 

 both of columns and windows, we find the elements of order, law, 

 and human reason, fully and completely expressed. Hence, the fit- 

 ness of classical architecture for the service of the state, for the town 

 hall, the legislative assembly, the lecture room, for intellectual or 

 scientific debate, and in short, for all civil purposes where the reason 

 of man is supreme. So, on the other hand, the leading idea of 

 Gothic architecture is found in its upward lines its aspiring ten- 

 dencies. No weight of long cornices, or flat ceilings, can keep it 

 down ; upward, higher and higher, it soars, lifting every thing, even 

 heavy, ponderous stones, poising them in the air in vaulted ceilings, 

 or piling them upwards towards Heaven, in spires, and steeples, and 

 towers, that, in the great cathedrals, almost seem to pierce the sky. 

 It must be a dull soul that does not catch and feel something of this 

 upward tendency in the vaulted aisles, and high, open, pointed roofs 

 of the interior of a fine Gothic church, as well as its subdued and 

 mellow light, and its suggestive and beautiful forms : forms, too, that 

 are rendered more touching by their associations with Christian wor- 

 ship in so many ages, not, like the Greek edifices, by associations 

 with heathen devotees. 



Granting that the Gothic cathedral expresses, in its lofty, aspir- 

 ing lines, the spirit of that true faith and devotion which leads us to 

 look upward, is it possible, in the narrow compass of a village 

 church which costs but a few hundred, or at most, a few thousand 

 dollars, to preserve this idea ? 



We answer, yes. A drop of water is not the ocean, but it is still 

 a type of the infinite ; and a few words of wisdom may not penetrate 

 the understanding so deeply as a great volume by a master of the 

 human heart, but they may work miracles, if fitly spoken. For it 

 is not the magnitude of things that is the measure of their excellence 

 and power ; and there is space enough for the architect to awaken 

 devotional feelings, and lead the soul upward, so far as material form 

 can aid in doing this, though in a less degree, in the little chapel 

 that is to hold a few hundred, as in the mighty minster where thou- 

 sands may assemble. 



And the cost too, shall not be greater ; that is, if a substantial 

 building is to be erected, and not a flimsy frame of boards and plas- 



