Architecture in the United States: 227 



place it any where rather than in a spot where it will not fail to break 

 up and destroy all expression in the building. These remarks apply 

 chiefly to churches after the Grecian style. The steeple of a Gothic 

 church is more easily managed. Even here however it should not 

 be placed in the centre of the facade, unless the other parts can be 

 brought out to a line even with it. This is often done in the English 

 churches, and while the buttresses keep the tower distinct, the ma- 

 jesty of the facade is still preserved. A tower at each angle of the 

 front is to be preferred. In this situation they will be found to be 

 powerful helpers to the facade ; they give it breadth and richness, 

 and it acquires the importance it deserves. 



As to the shape of the steeple, we have room for only a few re- 

 marks. Where we employ the spire, I think we generally err in 

 giving it too litde height in proportion to the tower. The spire in 

 England most admired for its proportions, is one hundred and four- 

 teen feet in height, the diameter of its base being nineteen ; the tower 

 on ■ which it rests is seventy feet high and twenty two feet square. 

 One word more — let us banish all fishes, arrows, and every thing of 

 the kind, every thing resembling a vane, from the top of our spires. 

 They are no ornament; what can they mean? A stranger would 

 think us wonderfully anxious' about the wind : if we must have them 

 let them be put in some other place. 



I must be allowed here to pass a little out of my way, and make 

 some remarks on the hurry and the parsimony which seldom fail to 

 accompany the erection of our public buildings. Our architecture 

 has hitherto exerted itself among frail and perishable materials. The 

 awkward wooden buildings it has erected are fast passing away, and 

 we should be glad that it is so. But the case is hereafter going to be 

 a different one. We are beginning to build entirely with bricks and 

 stone, and what is hereafter to be erected, will go down to other ages 

 to tell of our taste, and to exert its influence on theirs. Let us bear 

 constantly in mind, then, that not one of these edifices is built for our- 

 selves alone ; let us extend our views through other generations, down 

 to the far distant boundaries of time, and as we contemplate our 

 works binding these ages to us, and us to them, let us indulge the 

 feeling as our characters swell out and form themselves to this long 

 series of years, and to this constantly thickening population. Let us 

 remember too, that it will be an intelligent and a keen-sighted popu- 

 lation. We wish diem to respect our memory ; let us show that we 

 have respect for them : we wish them to reverence our laws and in- 



