are ever two factors in evolution—the environment, and the reaction of the evolved product upon the environment. Before a nation can have an Architecture it must have architects—that is, men who, whether in practice as architects or not, know what has been and what can be done with materials. That there may be architects, there must first be a need of them. It is only during recent years that Archi tecture has been studied to any great extent as a fine art. The mechan ic-architect—the man who knows only the traditions of a trade which is but one of the branches necessary in construction—has been far more prominent than the cultured artist-architect. The latter existed, but was rare until after the middle of the present century.
New illovement in the early decades of the cen tury purely utilitarian matters absorbed the inventiveness of the Amer ican people, and art was by the great majority looked upon as something superfluous; but constant communication by steam and by telegraph, the constant perusal of what is occurring in Europe, the continual stream of American travel to England and the European continent, and the per petual influx of Europeans have in the aggregate started a new art-move ment in this country. The impulse came from without, but the ground was better prepared to receive it than in the colonial days. The once poor colonies are now a mighty nation; riches and wealth abound, and the consequence is a perfect rush to the study of art, a furore to become artistic all at once. Such a state of things must give us much crude work, munch that is mere imitation, much that is but an intense striving after oddity for its own sake; but the monotony, the stereo typed uniformity, of the decades before the Centennial have gone for ever.
Having now briefly sketched the various fashions and tendencies that have been and are in operation among us during the present century, we will pass in review a few buildings of each class, premising that, though important or characteristic structures will as far as possible be chosen, the number of important structures that have been erected is so great that of necessity the larger number must remain unmentioned. Although eccle siastical architecture is not in the present age so prominent as in the days which gave the world the matchless cathedrals of Europe, it will be best to consider it first, since in the preceding chapters it has been given this position.
in the United States is, upon the whole, much inferior to that of England; this is largely due to the absence of an established Church, which in England still attempts to rival the more modest churches of the Middle Ages. Every sect in every city must have its church or churches, and the consequence is that places of worship are for the most part either small or of inexpensive construction. Thorgh there are many examples to the contrary, American churches abound in shams beyond the average to be found in other buildings. The elaborate tracery of the windows of choir and nave is on a near view seen to be mere woodwork, though the framework is stone; wooden pinnacles termi nate stone buttresses, and wooden structures of inartistic design do duty for towers and turrets. This is in cities and in places where the churches are built of stone or of brick. In the country churches of wood are abundant, but these are at least honest timber-work, and, though tintil recently the pointed heads of the windows and the possession of a tower or a turret were all that existed to distinguish such a church from a frame dwelling, some of the more modern frame churches are artistically designed.
The great shortcoming of our church-construction arises from the fact that so many churches are designed in the Gothic style—a style not prac tised for other classes of buildings, and of which no grand ancient exam ples are extant on the American continent to enable the architect to study and contemplate until he has imbibed the spirit of medievalism. Since most of our architects derive their ideas of Gothic from books and draw ings, few of them have been able to design satisfactorily in the style of a long-vanished past.
SI. Patrick's Cathedral, New York (pi. 56,fics.1,2), is the grandest relig ious edifice as yet executed in the United States. Its dimensions are small compared with those of the larger medieval cathedrals, since the total length is but 3o6 feet, the breadth of nave and choir 96 feet ex clusive, and 12o feet inclusive, of the side-chapels, and the width across the transepts 140 feet. Vet even in the height of the zeal and piety of the Middle Ages no structure so large, so magnificent, and so complete was ever raised in so short a space of time, since it was not commenced until 1858.