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style, have become familiar to our eyes long before their true relations to each other are at all understood, and while the correct expression of a perfectly Gothic building is a thing utterly unknown among us.

The great difficulty that has hitherto stood in the way of Gothic design is the smallness of the scale on which churches are constructed in the present day. When this great style was conceived "the whole earth was of one speech and one language," one faith was universal in the church, consequently fewer, but much larger buildings, were necessary for the accommodation of the religious public, while the obvious utility of one immense metropolitan church, in which, on great occasions, the whole population of a city could assemble, called forth those sublime and magnificent efforts of Gothic art, the old European cathedrals. In such buildings as these there is room for that infinite variety of design, that multiplicity of parts, and that majesty of proportion which, under modern circumstances, is unattainable. In this respect, Grecian art has offered much greater facilities. In this style the same proportions are observed, whether the building be large or small. Like the form of a man, which, whether colossal or lilliputian, has the same number of parts and the same general outline, so is a Grecian temple. Not so in the Gothic, which more resembles a form of vegetative life. The same number of parts, placed in a small church, that would be required in a large cathedral, would produce a dwarfed and diminutive appearance as little impressive as a stunted oak tree in a flowerpot. Hence the difficulty of preserving Gothic propriety in a small building without losing all that dignity and solemnity of aspect that belongs to the style. Sometimes, a tower is designed, of a size so disproportionate to the diminutive church to which it is attached, that it reminds us of Cæsar's question "who has tied you to that great sword?" The cruciform plan, universal in Europe, is almost unapproachable, since the whole interior of the building is needed for the congregation, and the altar must be visible from all parts.

Notwithstanding these and other difficul

ties, Gothic churches are beginning to be called for, and some have been erected in different parts of the United States of very considerable pretensions. Trinity church in New York is to exhibit the style carried out at greater expense than any specimen hitherto attempted in this country, being built entirely of stone, except the roof or ceiling. This omission is greatly to be regretted, for, with unlimited means, the architect there had it in his power to execute, what has never been seen among us-a groined roof of stone. The buttresses and lofty pinnacles on the sides of the building have now no meaning, for their design and intention is to support the stone vaulting of the interior by providing an adequate resistance to the lateral pressure of the arching, and, having left out this desideratum, their use is gone, and, with their utility, their appropriate beauty. Durability and exemption from accidents, in case of fire, are things that ought not lightly to have been disregarded in a building that is to cost so much and which was intended to be a perfect specimen of the style, but which is thus shorn of the crowning glory of the Gothic style,—the stone vaulting. Trinity church is, we think, the only one in the country that has clerestory windows, or windows lighting the nave, above the roof of the aisles. This, though advantageous in a large and lofty edifice, requires, in so small a one as Trinity, such a sacrifice of façade, that the body of the church, when compared with the tower, will have a low and insignificant appearance, very different from any original specimen of acknowledged beauty.

In order to create and spread a taste for the Gothic style, the most appropriate one for religious buildings on many accounts which it is our intention hereafter to notice, the efforts now being made to introduce it should be exhibited under a critical examination. Much is now being done to restore the form of ancient sanctities. In England, the efforts of Mr. Pugin seem to have met with great and deserved success. Gothic style is universally used in the churches and chapels now in progress of erection, of which there is a large number, and the efforts which have recently been

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made towards the preservation and restoration of the long neglected and abused remains of the style show the importance that is now attached to every thing relating to art of Christian birth and growth. All sects are beginning to see beauty and fitness in a style of building generated by the genius of Christianity.

We have chosen for our first illustration a Catholic church now in progress of completion in our own city. We are thereby enabled to notice several characteristic points of arrangement, the beauty and propriety of which are too often disregarded, and a due observance of which is essential to just effect. We have other illustrations in view for the display of other features, so as to furnish by instalments a full and extended notice of this art, and of the different styles of ecclesiastical architecture that have been used in the Church, since the establishment of Christianity, down to the present day.

In every country where Gothic architecture has prevailed, there have been three periods or styles of the art, regularly succeeding each other, the first two of which have been common to all of them, while the third is a variety peculiar to each, of which it seems to be the indigenous growth; as if each people had shaped from the common stock a last and perfected style, impressed with its own genius and character.

The first of these periods is in each country distinguished by the lancet or acutepointed arch, and hence this, first and earliest period of the Gothic is called the Lancet or Early-pointed style.

The second of these periods is marked by the use of the equilateral arch, or an arch very nearly approaching this form, and this outline and the manner of the divisions, called tracery, that fill up the arch, distinguishes the second period of the Gothic. With English writers this is called the Decorated style, while on the continent it has received the name of Rayonnant, from the radiating character of its divisions.

Lastly, in each country, a third style has arisen, indigenous and peculiar, in which the Gothic is found modified by the action of the mind of each people. In England this style is especially distinguished from

the preceding ones by the perpendicular manner of its tracery, and by the introduction of the flattened, four-centred arch, called the Tudor arch, from the fact of its introduction dating from the period of the Tudors. In France, this third style is known by a kind of flame-like tracery, whence it is called the Flamboyant, and throughout the Netherlands, the endless complications, interpenetrations and convolutions of its details mark the third period of the Gothic of Germany.

It is in the third period of the Gothic, as exhibited in England, namely, the perpendicular style, that the German Catholic church in Baltimore is designed. This may be considered as the finest style of the Gothic, it exhibits more prominently than any other, the peculiar and distinguishing characteristic of this mode of building,the perpendicular line, the vertical character is impressed upon every part of it, every portion of its details seems to partake of the impulse and to be struggling upwards towards heaven.

The church of the Immaculate Conception for the German Catholics, in Baltimore, is erected on the north east corner of Saratoga and Park streets, fronting on Saratoga street, and running back to an alley. Although the corner-stone was laid on the first day of May, 1842, the roof is now on, and the interior prepared for the plasterer to commence operations. It is expected that the interior and the spire, now only carried up as high as the roof, will be completed during the present year. The whole structure is built of brick, upon a stone foundation. The base course and steps, the door ways, cornices, weatherings, and copings are of dressed granite, and the window frames and sash, and the arch mouldings or labels that cover them, are of cast iron, of which material also, are to be the pinnacles and the upper section of the spire. The bricks and iron are intended to be painted to harmonise with the stone dressings, a mode of finishing preferable, as to beauty, durability, and cost, to rough-casting, especially so in the present instance, where the great number of corners, occasioned by the projection of the buttresses, would subject, in

more than an ordinary degree, the roughcasting to injury both from the weather and

from accident. rough-casting is covering, is gone. of the building is re-colored the unseemly patching stares you in the face like sorespots than which, to every eye, nothing can be more offensive, and into this condition, sooner or later, all rough-casting is sure to come. There is too an honesty about painted brick which certainly recommends its adoption in a building sacred to the cause of truth, where all imitation and false appearance, in every respect, should be carefully avoided. It is greatly to be desired that some of our brickmakers would turn their attention to the making of bricks of some good neutral color, like the fire-brick, instead of their present intense and glaring red, so that the outside painting now necessary might be dispensed with; and that architects generally would endeavor to benefit their art by introducing, extensively, the use of moulded bricks of every shape and variety required for architectural forms. Great beauty, at but little additional cost, may thus be produced, and the expense of the Gothic style, the greatest difficulty in its introduction, by this means, conjointly with the use of cast iron, may be so much diminished, as to lead to its universal adoption for religious edifices, "a consummation devoutly to be wished," by every architect of just taste.

When once the surface of broken, its beauty as a Unless the whole surface

Ground Plan.-In calling attention to the different parts and divisions of this church, as shown in the accompanying plan, it is not to be supposed that we speak of them as in any way peculiar to this edifice or, in the slightest degree, original. In the Cathedrals and parish churches of Europe all these parts are found in expanded perfection, with many others not here included. Long established usages and venerable forms cannot exist without leaving their impress in architecture. These cathedrals and churches, erected at times when all Christendom formed but one vast and flourishing body, were the abode of the most exact order, every part of the building had its appropriate function and corresponding sanctity.

A study of the plans of the Christian

churches, their varieties and development during ten centuries, until, in the Gothic cathedral was attained the full measure of their perfection, is one of the deepest interest; and rather as a prelude to the subject than to any peculiarity or merit in themselves, the details of this church are specified.

The Vestibule.-The first benefit which Christianity obtained by the conversion of Constantine was the liberty of public wor ship, the second, that of a suitable place in which to conduct it. The first efforts of the apostles in the promulgation of their new creed were made in the synagogues. It was in a portico, called the porch of Solomon, that the faithful assembled, and, as the Scripture testifies, were "all of one accord." St. Paul, in his journeyings, entered in each city into the synagogues and declared to the assembled Israelites the fulfilment of the prophecies respecting the promised Messiah. In these synagogues the first conversions were made, and the first organization of the Christian Church was commenced.

The alarm of the Jews at the spread of the new doctrines soon interdicted the use of their places of worship for their dissemition, and the meetings of the converts had to be held in private houses. St. Paul, after his return from Ephesus, abode at Rome, in his own rented house, and there taught all who came to him inquiring of the new faith.

Under the succeeding persecutions the early proselytes were constrained to meet for worship in the rocky caves and hollows of the mountains, and wonderful indeed must have seemed to them the operations of that Providence which suddenly called them from their catacombs, the despised and persecuted of the age, to receive from a Roman emperor the offer of his largest edifices for the public performance of their religious rites and ceremonies.

In Rome, as in all the municipal cities of the empire, there existed a kind of edifice designed for the double purpose of an exchange and a court of justice. These, which were in the central part of the city, and were constructed of a size sufficient to hold a large concourse of people, were

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