rural architecture. 
365 
city and harmony of proportion which Grecian buildings dis- 
play, they abound in much higher proofs of genius, as is 
abundantly evinced in the conception and execution of 
cathedrals so abounding in unrivalled sublimity, variety, and 
beauty. 
Gothic architecture, in its purity, was characterized mainly 
by the pointed arch. This novel feature in architecture? 
which, probably, in the hands of artists of great mathema- 
tical skill, was suggested by the inefficiency of the Roman 
arch first used, has given rise to all the superior boldness and 
picturesqueness of this style compared with the Grecian ; for 
while the Greek artist was obliged to cover his narrow open- 
ing with architraves, or solid blocks of stone, resting on 
columns at short intervals, and filling up the open space, the 
Gothic artist, by a single span of his pointed arch, resting on 
distant pillars, kept the whole area beneath, free and unen- 
cumbered. Applied, too, to openings for the admission of 
light, which were deemed of comparatively little or no im- 
portance by the Greeks, the arch was of immense value, 
making it possible to pierce the solid wall with large and 
lofty apertures, that diffused a magical brilliancy of light, in 
the otherwise dim and shadowy interior. 
We have here adverted to the Gothic cathedral, (as we 
did to the Greek temple,) as exhibiting the peculiar style in 
question, in its greatest purity. For domestic purposes, both, 
for the same reasons, are equally unfitted; as they were 
never so intended to be used by their original inventors, and 
being entirely wanting in fitness for the purposes of 
habitation in domestic life ; the Greek temple, as we have 
already shown, from its massive porticoes, and the simple 
rectangular form of its interior ; and the Gothic cathedral, 
from its high-pointed windows, and immense vaulted apart- 
