220 Architecture in the United States. 



shall be preserved, and the windows withdrawn in a great measure 

 from our notice. We have, I believe, no purpose that will allow the 

 pure Grecian form. Banks would do it, as far as light is concern- 

 ed ; for sufficient light might be admitted from above, and for them 

 this is the best kind of light ; but the heat of such an edifice in sum- 

 mer would be intolerable. 



The Gothic Style. 



We pass now to a consideration of the Gothic style. The strong 

 resemblance borne by the arches and rich tracery of this style, to 

 the appearance presented by groups of certain species of trees, has 

 made the impression general, that this was its origin. The idea was 

 strongly advocated by Sir James Hall, in a memoir before the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh in 1797. It is a pretty theory, but unfortu- 

 nately it has no support in history ; and the transition from the Ro- 

 man to the Goriiic, which can be clearly traced in the ancient Ital- 

 ian and English buildings, is too gradual to warrant such an idea. 

 The Romans, as was said in the last article, introduced the semicircular 

 arch, causing it often to spring immediately from the pillars : the meeting 

 of such arches, and still more their interlacing, when they were used, 

 as was sometimes the case, in a kind of relief against the facade of 

 an edifice, suggested the idea of the pointed arch : it came slowly 

 into use : the arches had a lighter character than those of the semi- 

 circular form, and the columns were made by degrees to corres- 

 pond : it had, now become a distinct style, and had begun to attract 

 attention : the singular yet beautiful ornamenting of the Saracenic 

 style was added by the Crusaders ; some tincture of the Moorish 

 was also perhaps given by travellers from the South of Spain : archi- 

 tecture, with the other arts, was reviving ; and, as artists could now 

 be no longer mere copyists, but were thrown on the resources of 

 their own minds, the Gothic grew up into a style of exquisite beauty. 

 Its characters become more strongly marked as we recede from It- 

 aly, probably from the fact that in these nations its advances were 

 less checked by a regard for the more ancient styles. England is 

 supposed to present the best examples of the Gothic. In the edi- 

 fices of that country, we can trace the whole progress of tliis style. 

 The oldest remains exhibit the semicircular arch, supported by short 

 heavy columns, evidently copies from the Roman. These belong to 

 the period of the Saxon government. The Normans intioduced high- 

 er pillars and more loiiy vaultings, with more lightness and greater 



