on epithet of opprobrium is justly bestowed, and
marks a right feeling. A wall has no business to be dead. It ought to
have members in its make, and purposes in its existence, like an
organized creature, and to answer its ends in a living and energetic
way; and it is only when we do not choose to put any strength nor
organization into it, that it offends us by its deadness. Every wall
ought to be a "sweet and lovely wall." I do not care about its having
ears; but, for instruction and exhortation, I would often have it to
"hold up its fingers." What its necessary members and excellences are,
it is our present business to discover.

Sec. II. A wall has been defined to be an even and united fence of wood,
earth, stone, or metal. Metal fences, however, seldom, if ever, take the
form of walls, but of railings; and, like all other metal constructions,
must be left out of our present investigation; as may be also walls
composed merely of light planks or laths for purposes of partition or
inclosure. Substantial walls, whether of wood or earth (I use the word
earth as including clay, baked or unbaked, and stone), have, in their
perfect form, three distinct members;--the Foundation, Body or Veil, and
Cornice.

Sec. III. The foundation is to the wall what the paw is to an animal. It
is a long foot, wider than the wall, on which the wall is to stand, and
which keeps it from settling into the ground. It is most necessary that
this great element of security should be visible to the eye, and
therefore made a part of the structure above ground. Sometimes, indeed,
it becomes incorporated with the entire foundation of the building, a
vast table on which walls or piers are alike set: but even then, the
eye, taught by the reason, requires some additional preparation or foot
for the wall, and the building is felt to be imperfect without it. This
foundation we shall call the Base of the wall.

Sec. IV. The body of the wall is of course the principal mass of it,
formed of mud or clay, of bricks or stones, of logs or hewn timber; the
condition of structure being, that it is of equal thickness everywhere,
below and above. It may be half a foot thick, or six feet thick, or
fifty feet thick; but if of equal thickness everywhere, it is still a
wall proper: if to its fifty feet of proper thickness there be added so
much as an inch of thickness in particular parts, that added thickness
is to be considered as some form of buttress or pier, or other