Architecture in the United Btates. 219 



color different from that of the parts above. So far there is no difficulty 

 in employing the Grecian form ; but one of a serious character yet 

 remains to be mentioned : — the cell has no opening in its side for the 

 admission of light. Should it be said that windows may easily be 

 made, since our necessities demand them, I answer that the experi- 

 ment is a dangerous one. When an object is complete and perfect, 

 we cannot change any one of its parts, without great risk of spoiling 

 the whole. It is so in the present case. The Greek temple grew 

 up without occasion for more light than could be admitted through 

 the door or openings in the roof, and every part of it was accommo- 

 dated to this circumstance. With this, the solid and heavy entabla- 

 tures are in perfect keeping, and we shall always find a difficulty 

 in reconciling them to any other. The Grecian Doric entabla- 

 ture is one third of the height of its column : the upper line of the 

 windows must be at least several feet below the entablature ; and 

 thus, while the lower part of the building is pierced with numerous 

 openings, nearly five twelfths of it remain above this in its original 

 solid and heavy form. The inferior part, thus honey-combed, seems 

 ill suited to the superincumbent weight. I speak however on this 

 point with diffidence, and perhaps should not speak at all, if my ob- 

 servation of the minds of others did not correspond with the effect 

 on my own. I believe I have never yet seen a person taken, for the 

 first time, to a building of this kind, who did not immediately ask if 

 the entablature was not entirely out of proportion with the other 

 parts. The fault was not in the entablature, but in the windows be- 

 low". Should it be objected to this that the columns, though placed 

 at considerable intervals, support the same weight without any in- 

 congruity, I answer that the upright posture of the pillars offers a full 

 preparation for this weight ; but in the other case the pressure is on 

 horizontal objects, for such is the posture of the materials which com- 

 pose the cells. The difficulty may perhaps be obviated by panel- 

 ling the sides and placing the windows in the sunken parts of the 

 wall, where they would be less observed, and would scarcely be felt, 

 indeed, to interfere with the general appearance of the building. 

 Parts of the cell would then also assume a vertical character, and 

 the entablature would have an adequate support. This, it is true, 

 would destroy the simplicity of the cell in a great degree : but this 

 simplicity must at all events be destroyed by the windows ; and the 

 question is, whether they shall be a prominent and striking object, 

 weakening the substructure, or whether the strength of this part 



