PART III. 



ARCHITECTURE. 



101 



of this style ; and as an exact imitation of its general forms is 

 chiefly adapted to churches, they do not require a more minute 

 consideration here. I shall not quit this style, however, without 

 mentioning that it is the most perfect which exists in Europe. The 

 beauty of fitness is so prevalent, that not one part appears super- 

 fluous. All the parts of the columns as they spread seem to co- 

 operate with each other in supporting the roof ; and all the mul- 

 lions, or divisions of the windows, seem to unite in dividing it 

 into partitions of agreeable shape and conveniency*. Externally, 

 the buttresses appear to assist, and really do assist, in support- 

 ing the wall and the roof. By an examination into the mecha- 

 nical principles which pervade the whole, this fitness is no less 

 apparent than real or necessary ; so much so, indeed, that not 

 one single buttress, and in some cases (as in the ribs of open 



* That the chief source of the beauty of the spandrils of the roof is their fitness, 

 or their apparent co-operation and connexion with the column, cannot be better 

 illustrated, than by referring to the new Entrance Hall in Windsor Castle, where the 

 roof is richly covered with these parts ; but as they have little or no connexion with 

 the walls, either real or apparent, the whole seems heavy, and ready to sink down. 

 I do not know whether or not I am singular in rav opinion ; but when I first saw 

 it, about two years ago, it displeased me exceedingly ; and upon examining it 

 lately, I was convinced that the want of fitness was the sole cause of my displeasure. 

 This shews the great danger of not attending to the theory of design in architec- 

 ture. The truth is, that in practice, without a constant recurrence to the first prin- 

 ciples, artists even of the first repute are liable to err ; and in my opinion, the chief 

 errors both in Grecian and Gothic architecture have been produced by trusting to 

 the eye and the pencil, without consulting the understanding. This practice na- 

 turally leads artists to attach a false value to parts, without sufficiently considering, 

 that their beauty, however great, will be highly injured, if their relation to a whole 

 be not also taken into consideration. 



