DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18826#0213
12 ARCHITECTURE. [LECT, I.
Mark how the dread Pantheon stands;
Amid the domes ©f modern hands,
Amid the toys of modern state,
How nobly, how severely great!
These the northern ravagers destroyed: But, the
Northern ravagers had their taste, and their style,
and their fkill too, and let us do them the juftice to
acknowledge, that it was not deficient in expres-
sion : like their poetry, which abounded in animated
imagery, and bold phrafeology, wild and irregular,
yet often pathetic and lofty, void of conduct and
plan, yet vigorous and affecting; so their architec-
ture was peculiar and barbarous; dissimilar in its
parts, multifarious, and injudicious, in its ornaments;
confused, and perplexed, in its distribution. But, if
the ages of ignorance wanted gloom, the Gothic
architecture was gloomy; it was correspondent to
the hood, the cowl, the beads, the superstition of
the times, and, even now, has great effect in pro-
ducing solemnity and reverence, and striking with
awe the man of observation. Nor were the me-
chanical parts of architecture unknown; nor would
many of our present architects be able to surpass
the bold projection, and the lofty roof, which Gothic
magnificence has left, as monuments of its abilities
and emulation.
Gothic architecture is a striking instance of the
necessity. of order; for, if the architects of the
times alluded to, had studied uniformity and sym-
metry, I think it not impossible they might have
discarded, by degrees, those labyrinthine orna-
ments, with which they endeavoured to conceal
dispro-
Mark how the dread Pantheon stands;
Amid the domes ©f modern hands,
Amid the toys of modern state,
How nobly, how severely great!
These the northern ravagers destroyed: But, the
Northern ravagers had their taste, and their style,
and their fkill too, and let us do them the juftice to
acknowledge, that it was not deficient in expres-
sion : like their poetry, which abounded in animated
imagery, and bold phrafeology, wild and irregular,
yet often pathetic and lofty, void of conduct and
plan, yet vigorous and affecting; so their architec-
ture was peculiar and barbarous; dissimilar in its
parts, multifarious, and injudicious, in its ornaments;
confused, and perplexed, in its distribution. But, if
the ages of ignorance wanted gloom, the Gothic
architecture was gloomy; it was correspondent to
the hood, the cowl, the beads, the superstition of
the times, and, even now, has great effect in pro-
ducing solemnity and reverence, and striking with
awe the man of observation. Nor were the me-
chanical parts of architecture unknown; nor would
many of our present architects be able to surpass
the bold projection, and the lofty roof, which Gothic
magnificence has left, as monuments of its abilities
and emulation.
Gothic architecture is a striking instance of the
necessity. of order; for, if the architects of the
times alluded to, had studied uniformity and sym-
metry, I think it not impossible they might have
discarded, by degrees, those labyrinthine orna-
ments, with which they endeavoured to conceal
dispro-