The variety offeatures it underwent, in its application to church architecture, has given rise to many speculations of men of science and learning, as to its rise and progress. One of the theories, and not an Improbable one, is, that, during the crusade, worship was conducted in the groves, and in order to procure shelter and shade,they bent the limbs ofopposite limbs together at the top, and bound thein at the intersection, thereby produc ing the pointed arch, a continuation of which method from tree to tree would furnish a complete Gothic arcade. The Saxon and Norman Gothic was the first practised, and seems to have been con structed with considerable reference to the Roman style of its time. The pillars massy, and consisting of several shafts, cylindrical, and octagonal, supporting a heavy decorated cornice, ornamented with diamond net-work. The capitals composed of leaves and flowers.
One of the finest features of this style, and which in many instances form the most striking ornaments of a city, is the tall tapering spire ; they were first built of wood by the Normans, and since with as much dexterity, by their descendants in stone, as in Salisb UM Tower and spire, being 400 feet in height.
The most remarkable property be longirig to the Gothic is magnitude ; as it never succeeds in producing its charac teristic beauties when projected on a small scale, and should always be con structed of stone or wood.
Buildings of a public nature ought to express, in the design, the uses and pur poses to which they are erected and ap propriated, so that strangers, when they behold a church, bank, court-house, prison, &c. may understand them to be so, from some external characters, with out the aid of a painted sign or inscribed tablet.
Allegorical representations, applied to architecture, is a source through which we always derive pleasure anti informa tion, by calling forth the taste, judgment, and literary acquirements, to the inter pretation of objects in the fine and dig nified arts. In a young country like ours, where its inhabitants are scattered over an immense tract of territory, a great por tion of which is unsettled and uncultivat ed; and where its only resources are drawn from agriculture and commerce, distributing and equalizing wealth , it cannot be reasonably expected that archi. tectural works of great magnificence and duration should be constructed, to bear any kind of comparison with those exe cuted under the controul of a despotic power, where materials, labour, and funds, arc directed by sovereignty and an independent priesthood.
The associations of men of wealth for the constriction of edifices of a public nature, and in the establishment of insti tutions for the promotion of the fine arts and sciences, are highly honourable to the taste and liberality of the American cha racter : and it is entirely owing to such objects and exertions, that we can traee the advancement of thent in this country to the summit of their present perfec tion.
The native e nterprize and perseverance of the country at large in the Udvance merit of science and art;has fully evinced itself in the many flourishing and popu lous cities spread over an immense con tinent, that two centuries ago was the abode of man in a state of nature.
The splendid and extensive edifices at Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New-York, exhibit great taste in the science of architecture. The capitol at Washington is perhaps the greatest effort of our republic, in point of extent and workmanship, and reflects great credit on the talents of Mr. Latrobe4the archi tect. The next in point of magnitude is the city hall in New-York, and a number of beautiful churches built of stone.
The Pennsylvania bank in Philadelphia, also from the designs of Mr. Latrobe, is the most beautiful building' on the conti nent, and is a perfect model of a Grecian hexastyle temple ; it has never failed to be universally admired, for its symmetry and proportion. " The value attached to works of this nature may be judged of, from the city of Ephesus refusingto suf fer the temple of Diana to be inscribed with the name of Alexander the Great, although that prince offered to purchase that honour by defraying the whole ex pense attending its erection ; from the Athenians rejecting a like offer from Pe ricles, with regard to the splendid and extensive edifices with which he bad or namented Athens; and from the city of Gnidia refusing to part with one statue, the Venus of Praxiteles, although king Nicomedes proposed to free them from tribute, if they- complied with the re quest." [WTI. STRICKLAND, .3rchitect.] In the vast structures of Asia and Africa, greatness of design, ponderosity of parts, and stones of immense magnitude, seem to have been more regarded than ele gance or utility : in all those great works there is no trace of an arch, but what is excavated out of the solid rock, or may be made of a single stone. The Greeks profess to have derived the knowledge of architecture from the Eg-yptians, but the art of building bas been so much im proved bv transplanting, that scarcely any trace of ihe original remains : their edi fices were at tint constructed of wood and clay, but they soon began to imitate the wooden posts and beams of the origi nal hut in stone and marble : from this imitation arose the first order in architec ture, which also gave birth to two others. This ingenious people, favoured by na ture with marble and other building ma.. terials, and, like the Egyptians, being anxious to make their works diirable, employed very weighty stones in die construction, which, although laid with out cement, as was the practice of all an cient nations, yet they were jointed with the utmost accuracy, which is the reason of the perfect state of their edifices at this day. There is little doubt but that the Greeks were the inventors of the arch, though they never considered it as an ornament: it is only to be found in the theatres and gymnasia, the aperturemof walls and intercolumns being linteled.