Architecture in the United States. 223 



counterbalance its lateral pressure. Such counterbalance is formed 

 sometimes in buttresses, which are to be considered as a part of this 

 style, but when the pressure of a large arch is resisted on each side 

 only by the pressure of one not half its size, as must be the case in 

 the nave and aisles of our churches, the inequality is at once seen, 

 and the impression does not fail to be a disagreeable one. The lat- 

 eral pressure, indeed, is not equal in the arches of the second order : 

 but in these it is comparatively trifling, and not being pressed on our 

 attention, the difference is not often observed, or if observed, pro- 

 duces no striking effect on the mind. Such impressions must be 

 carefully regarded. The arch is the most important feature in the 

 Gothic style : it draws our attention first : it gives a character to the 

 whole edifice, and our feelings are pleasant or painful as they are af- 

 fected by it. The depressed arch is, however, not without its uses. 

 It can be used in door-ways, and often in other subordinate parts 

 with great advantage ; but in the main portions of an edifice, those 

 which are to determine its character, the arch of the second order 

 should be employed. Its noble and imposing form, its lightness, its 

 keeping with the graceful clustered columns of this style, its complete 

 adaptedness to all the purposes of Gothic architecture, entitle it to 

 this. 



But after determining on the arch, much still remains to be done, 

 if we wish to form a Gothic edifice. And first, as to the form of the 

 building. In the Grecian style, simplicity, we have remarked, is 

 the most striking quality : a simple Gothic building is a contradic- 

 tion of term. Simplicity has no part in the whole matter. When 

 therefore we build up smooth walls, with plain pointed windows, and 

 call this Gothic we most egregiously mistake. The aim of the Gre- 

 cian, let me say again, is to bring all the parts within the compass of 

 the mind, and subject them to its keenest perceptions : that of the 

 Gothic is to confound the attention, and while the powers of the 

 mind are thus weakened, to bring it completely under its control. To 

 do this, it multiplies its partSj and studies a certain degree of irregu- 

 larity and apparent disorder. Hence arises the difficulty of reducing 

 it to any kind of rule : the European edifices have been measured, 

 and attempts have been made to discover from them some system 

 for the government of architects, but one object of the style, and one 

 on which its success greatly depended, was to baffle all efforts at sys- 

 tematizing, and we can rarely discover any thing like rule, or system. 

 Whenever we can, the mind gains so far the mastery over the style, 



