Architecture in the United States. 25 



art, — a still greater failure than that which had accompained its trans- 

 fer from Greece to Rome. The purposes of public buildings were 

 nearly the same among the Romans as among the Greeks ; they 

 worshipped the same gods and with similar rites : it was easy then 

 to adhere closely to the Grecian models, and though the new building 

 might want beauty of expression, or have no expression at all, still, 

 this close adherence would keep it from being absurd. This saved 

 the Romans for a while, and would have saved them altogether, had 

 they been contented with this. But Christian edifices must be of a 

 different character : their objects were different : their plans, their 

 whole structure must be different : here there could be no security 

 from simple copying. Failure was inevitable, and the Grecian art 

 took its last downward step. Even the boasted St. Peter's is but a 

 "a labored quarry above-ground :''* it affects us with wonder, with 

 astonishment, but at what ? At the rich marbles, the gorgeous adorn- 

 ings, the vastness, the splendor : but all these can exist without 

 a particle of true architecture. Money can buy them all, and when 

 we stand before St. Peter's, we think not of its majesty — but of its 

 cost ! And if this is St. Peter's, what are most other modern edifices .'' 

 Away with such architecture, or at least, degrade not the art by coup- 

 ling them with its name. 



The Grecian architecture grew up in a manly discipline of the 

 taste : it is founded on this : every part of it shares this character, and 

 no one can ever succeed in it without having passed through the 

 same severe course. All attempts even to blend any part of it with 

 our buildings will end in failure without this. As well might our 

 newspaper poets expect to draw admiration by mingling the lines of 

 Milton or Homer with theirs. We may succeed in the Egyptian, the 

 Indian, the Chinese, the Saracenic ; we may succeed also in the 

 Gothic, if wealth can be found equal to its demands ; — but, in the 

 Grecian, sine pulvere nulla palma, is the language of reason, and is 

 echoed back to us from the experience of more than two thousand 

 years. 



We may, however, succeed : the prize as well as the race is placed 

 before us, and we have every thing that can give us hope. Whatever 

 labor it may impose on our architects, to all other persons the means 

 of success are the easiest possible : we need scarcely do more than 



* " A person accustomed to the cumbrous churches of Christendom, those labored 

 quarries above-ground, &c." — Hobhouse' Albania, Letter XXII. 



VoT,. XVIIL— No. 2. 4 



