n and harmony of the building require, in nearly
every case, an entrance of largeness proportioned to the multitude which
is to meet within. Nothing is more unseemly than that a great multitude
should find its way out and in, as ants and wasps do, through holes; and
nothing more undignified than the paltry doors of many of our English
cathedrals, which look as if they were made, not for the open egress,
but for the surreptitious drainage of a stagnant congregation. Besides,
the expression of the church door should lead us, as far as possible, to
desire at least the western entrance to be single, partly because no man
of right feeling would willingly lose the idea of unity and fellowship
in going up to worship, which is suggested by the vast single entrance;
partly because it is at the entrance that the most serious words of the
building are always addressed, by its sculptures or inscriptions, to the
worshipper; and it is well, that these words should be spoken to all at
once, as by one great voice, not broken up into weak repetitions over
minor doors.

In practice the matter has been, I suppose, regulated almost altogether
by convenience, the western doors being single in small churches, while
in the larger the entrances become three or five, the central door
remaining always principal, in consequence of the fine sense of
composition which the mediaeval builders never lost. These arrangements
have formed the noblest buildings in the world. Yet it is worth
observing[55] how perfect in its simplicity the single entrance may
become, when it is treated as in the Duomo and St. Zeno of Verona, and
other such early Lombard churches, having noble porches, and rich
sculptures grouped around the entrance.

Sec. VII. However, whether the entrances be single, triple, or manifold,
it is a constant law that one shall be principal, and all shall be of size
in some degree proportioned to that of the building. And this size is,
of course, chiefly to be expressed in width, that being the only useful
dimension in a door (except for pageantry, chairing of bishops and
waving of banners, and other such vanities, not, I hope, after this
century, much to be regarded in the building of Christian temples); but
though the width is the only necessary dimension, it is well to increase
the height also in some proportion to it, in order that there may be
less weight of wall above, resting on the increased span of the arch.
This is, however, so much