^ . , § 1 80. It is pertinent her« to indicate

CharaCteristie -

tifecu of the diP the distinguishing characteristic effects

of these different styles of architecture
on the aesthetic sense. That of the Grecian style
will readily be recognized as elevated repose. The
Vertical lines here all run into horizontal lines, and
are terminated by them, while the latter sweep round
and round without end. The eye is lifted at onee
to the entablature, which is recognized to be in per-
fect support as it rests on the stable column, and is
then kept in secure and quiet admiration of undis-
tracting, perfectly simple, yet perfectly complete
^esthetic form. The Roman arch that turns the
contemplating eye, round and round upon itself,
presenting no point from which it can break away,
except simply to folk)W down the columnar support,
suggests as its proper aesthetic effect the steadfast
orderliness and practicalness of ordinary life. The
proper expression of the pointed architecture is as
obviously aspiration. It lifts the eye ever upward ;
gives it no resting place, not even at its highest ele-
vation, nor yet when itself can reach no higher, by
a gentle and smoothed bending suggests a down-
ward return, but seems only, by its sharp ending,
to bid the contemplation, with the spring it has
given it| soar ever higher. The aesthetic expres-
sion ctf the Grecian style is thus tranquil repose ; of
the Roman, unending orderly activity ; and of th^



SPECIAL LA^^'S. 221

Gothic, upward aspiration and endeavor ; while that
(rf the heavy gloomy Egyptian and Hindoo, run-
ning ever into the expression of the infinite un-
known of extent, and duration, and power, is op-
pre^ion, fear, dejection.
