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" masses from the plan to the elevation and section. Al- 
*' though this system may appear to belong more properly to 
" public or large buildings, than to private or small ones, the 
" principles are the same in both ; and if in designing even 
" the smallest house, the student will keep in view that the 
" use of the orders and their accessories may be applied to 
" it, though omitted in reality for the sake of economy, he 
** will invariably produce a work which possesses a grace far 
beyond the reach of the common artisan or builder. M. 
" Durand, (in his * Precis de re9on d' Architecture,') has 
" carried the interaxal system to a great extent." 
I now refer to one of many negative proofs of the import- 
ance of symmetrical arrangement of edifices of the pointed 
style. In Westminster Abbey the aisles are extremely narrow 
compared with the width of the structure, and this circum- 
stance has been referred to by several antiquaries, although 
the cause of the imperfection has not been pointed out. The 
fact is, the pillars separating the nave from the aisles are 
not in their proper position, — the distance from the out- 
ward walls to the centre of these columns is less than a 
quarter of the whole width, and it is to this circumstance 
that I refer as the cause of complaint. Were it not invidi- 
ous, I might mention several modern churches, in which in 
some cases the pulpits are scarcely seen from the galleries, 
and in others they can scarcely be seen from the aisles, and 
which defects I have traced by actual measurement to one 
of two causes, — 1st. That the total width of the church 
does not warrant the introduction of aisles. 2nd. That the 
width of the church is sufficient, but the arrangement of 
the ground plan is deficient in symmetry, arising from the 
want of attention in determining the relative widths of the 
nave and aisles. Correctives to these evils might be foimd 
by reverting to the principles discoverable in the plans of 
the cathedrals to which I have already referred ; and I 
