Architecture in the United States. 2 1 5 



"I do not mean to prescribe what degree of attention ought to be 

 paid to the minute parts ; this is hard to settle. We are sure that it 

 is expressing the general effect of the whole, which alone can give 

 to objects their true and touching character ; and wherever this is 

 observed, whatever else may be neglected, we acknowledge the 

 hand of a master." 



Besides the danger into which the Roman Doric is apt to lead us 

 of neglecting this expression as a ivhole, in attention to minute parts, 

 there are many purposes to which its powers are unequal, and for 

 which we must resort to something else. In most large edifices we 

 wish to express grandeur, or majesty or solemnity, or perhaps all of 

 these united. All these we shall find in the Grecian Doric. I con- 

 gratulate the country on the prospects of this order among us. It 

 has hitherto been little used, but the reception it has met with augurs 

 most favorably of its success. The Bank of the United States, at 

 Philadelphia, is an example of this; indeed I know of no instance 

 where it has been employed, in which its pure, chaste and noble 

 character has not been at once appreciated. There is in it so much 

 of true grandeur united with great simplicity; such boldness joined 

 with delicacy in the outlines; such apparent recklessness of effect; 

 such disregard of every thing extraneous, and seeming confidence in 

 its own inherent merits; in short such consonance in all its parts, 

 with the principles of beauty with which we have been familiar in 

 nature, that every one feels immediately a charm to which he has not 

 been accustomed in architectural objects. Every visiter at Philadel- 

 phia speaks of its bank, and every citizen is proud of it. I hope the 

 use of this order will become the characteristic of architecture in our 

 country. In churches, in large banks, in houses for legislation or for 

 the administration of laws, and for all edifices where grave and 

 simple majesty is requisite in the expression, the Grecian Doric should 

 be employed. It is an order however that will admit of no dallying, 

 and he who uses it will have a difficult part to do, if he wishes to use 

 it with its proper effect. For edifices in which we desire a pleasing 

 and cheerful dignity, the Roman Doric seems to be well adapted : it 

 is sometimes employed with advantage in private buildings; but for 

 these a much more appropriate order may be found in the Ionic. 



In the Ionic, we must also distinguish between the Grecian and the 

 Roman order. They differ in the height of the shaft, the Grecian 

 requiring eight, the Roman nine diameters; and in the capital. The 

 Grecian capital was characterized by two large volutes, supposed by 



