264 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



ter. Indeed, we could quote numberless instances where the sums 

 expended in classical buildings, of false proportions but costly execu- 

 tion,* which can never raise other than emotions of pride in the hu- 

 man heart, would have built beautiful rural churohes, which every 

 inhabitant of the town where they chanced to stand, would remem- 

 ber with feelings of respect and affection, to the end of all time. 



And in truth, we would not desire to make the country church 

 other than simple, truthful, and harmonious. We would avoid all 

 pretensions to elaborate architectural ornament ; we would depend 

 upon the right proportions, forms, outlines^ and the true expression 

 Above all, we would have the country church rural and expressive, 

 by placing it in a spot of green lawn, surrounding it with our beau- 

 tiful natural shade trees, and decorating its walls (for no church 

 built in any but the newest settlements, where means are utterly 

 wanting, should be built of so perishable a material as wood) with 

 climbing plants the ivy, or where that would not thrive, the Virginia 

 creeper. And so we would make the country church, in its very 

 forms and outlines, its walls and the vines that enwreath them, its 

 shady green and the elms that overhang it, as well as in the lessons 

 of goodness and piety that emanate from its pulpit, something to 

 become a part of the affections, and touch and better the hearts of 

 the whole country about it. 



* "We have seen with pain, lately, one of those great temple churches 

 erected in a country town on the Hudson, at a cost of $20,000. It looks 

 outside and inside, no more like a church, than does the Custom House. 

 And yet this sum would have built the most perfect of devotional edifices 

 for that congregation. 



