Architecture of Paris. 7 



terial, stone, has an appearance of greater durability, and 

 because the openings of the doors and windows are larger, and 

 for the most part have more allusion to Grecian or Roman 

 architecture. But what spoil almost all the buildings in 

 Paris, and almost all the chateaus in France, from the Tuille- 

 ries down to the commonest dwelling-house or stable, are 

 their intolerably high roofs. What is the reason why a high 

 roof in every building of the slightest pretensions to architec- 

 ture is displeasing ? Is it simply because high roofs are no 

 longer in fashion either in France or in England ? or is there 

 any reason against high roofs which is founded in the nature 

 of things ? High roofs, when they are unavoidable, or be- 

 lieved to be so, are not displeasing in a wide barn, nor covering 

 a sheepfold, nor in a manufactory ; because the distance be- 

 tween the side walls is so great, that to have formed a low roof 

 would have required more expense than the end in view would 

 have justified. High roofs are not displeasing in cathedrals, 

 partly from the same reason, partly from their antiquity and 

 the associations connected with them, and partly because they 

 are most commonly formed of materials of more than common 

 durability, put together with more than common skill ; add 

 also that they are sometimes covered with lead, the parallel 

 ridges formed by which convey, to a certain extent, an expres- 

 sion of design. Thus, as we have said above, high roofs are 

 not displeasing when they are governed by necessity, or by 

 any other overruling cause. But why are high roofs displeas- 

 ing, where they are not necessary, or where it is believed they 

 can be avoided ? Why, in short, are they built as seldom as 

 possibly by modern architects? Because roofs, from their 

 sloping surface, and the temporary nature of the materials of 

 which they are composed, do not admit of receiving the impres- 

 sions of that sort of architectural design which is appropriated 

 to walls of masonry. Therefore, a high naked roof, over walls 

 characterised by architectural design, is an incongruous assem- 

 blage of lines and forms, as well as of materials. It is true 

 that the incongruity hi respect to materials is as great when 

 the roof is low as when it is high ; but though it is great in 

 reality, it is not so great in appearance, and the fact is over- 

 looked in the superiority of the architectural expression pro- 

 duced. If, therefore, there is some well founded reason in 

 the human mind, and which ought to have been felt by archi- 

 tects in every age, against high roofs, how comes it that the 

 palace of the Tuilleries has a roof so preposterously high ? It 

 is certain that this roof must have been approved of, and even 

 thought beautiful at the time it was produced ; how does it 

 happen, then, that by the present age it is almost universally 



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