RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 
323 
dwelling-house, the expression of purpose is conveyed by 
the chimney-tops, the porch or veranda, and those 
various appendages indicative of domestic enjoyment, 
which are needless, and therefore misplaced, in a public 
building. In a church, the spire or the dome, when 
present, at once stamps the building with the expression 
of purpose ; and the few openings and plain exterior, with 
the absence of chimneys, are the suitable and easily 
recognised characteristics of the barn. Were any one to 
commit so violent an outrage upon the principle of the 
expression of purpose as to surmount his barns with the 
tall church spire, our feelings would at once cry out 
against the want of propriety. Yet how often do we 
meet in the northern states, with stables built after the 
models of Greek temples, and. barns with elegant Venetian 
shutters — to sav nothing of mansions with none but 
concealed cl i cine} tops, and without perches or append- 
ages of any nind, to give the least hint to the mind of the 
doubting spectator, whether the edifice is a chapel, a bank, 
a hospital, or the private dwelling of a man of wealth and 
opulence ! 
“ The expression of the purpose for which every 
building is erected,” says the writer before quoted, “is 
the first and most essential beauty, $nd should be obvious 
from its architecture, although independent of any 
particular style ; in the same manner as the reasons for 
things are altogether independent of the language in 
which they are conveyed. As in literary composition, no 
beauty of language can ever compensate for poverty of 
sense, so in architectural composition, no beauty of style 
can ever compensate for want of expression of purposed' 
Applying this excellent principle to our own country 
