A PEW WORDS ON ODE PROGBESS IN BUILDING. 217 



port, which looks like the minareted and domed residence of a Per- 

 sian /SAaA — though its orientalism is rathei' pjit out of countenance 

 by the prim and- puritanical dwellings of the plain citizens within 

 rifle shot of it. A citizen of fortune dies, and leaves a large sum to 

 erect a "large plain building" for a school to educate orphan boys 

 — which the building committee consider to mean a superb marble 

 temple, like that of Jupiter Olympus ; a foreigner liberally bequeaths 

 his fortune to the foundation of an institution "for the diffusion of 

 knowledge among men"^and the regents erect a college in ' the 

 style of a Norman monastery — with a relish of the dark ages in it, 

 the better to contrast with its avowed purpose of diffusing light. 

 On all sides, in our large towns, we have churches built after trothic 

 models, and though highly fitting and beautiful as churches, it e., 

 edifices for purely devotional purposes^— are quite useless as places 

 to hear sermons in, • because the preacher's voice is inaudible in at 

 least one-half of the church. And eveiy where in the older, parts of 

 the country, private fortunes are rapidly crystallizing into mansions, , 

 villas, country-houses and cottages, in all known styles supposed to^ 

 be in any way suitable to the purposes of civilized habitations. 



Without in the least desiring to apologize for the frequent viola- 

 tions of taste witnessed in all this fermentation of the popular feeling 

 in architecture, we jdo not hesitate to say that we rejoice in it. It 

 is a fermentation that shows clearly there is no apathy in the public 

 ^mind, and we feel as much confidence as the vintner who walks 

 throug^i the wine cellar in full activity, that the firoth of foreign affec- 

 tations will work off, and the impurities of vulgar taste settle down, 

 leaving us the pure spirit of a better national taste at last. Rome 

 was not built in a day, and whoever would see a national architec- 

 ■ ture, must be patient till it has time to rise out of the old' materials, 

 under the. influences of a new climate, our novel institutions and 

 modified habits. 



In domestic architecture, the difiSculties that lie in the way of 

 achieving a pure and correct taste, are, perhaps, greater thaii in civil 

 or ecclesiastical edifices. There are so many private _^?ici«»,. and 

 personal van^iesy which seek to manifest themselves in the housQ of 

 the ambitious private citizen, and which are defended under the 

 shield of that miserable falsehood, "there is no disputing about 



