e
caution is required in their use than in any other features of ornament,
and the architect and spectator must both be in felicitous humor before
they can be well designed or thoroughly enjoyed. They are generally
most admirable where the grotesque Northern spirit has most power; and I
think there is almost always a certain spirit of playfulness in them,
adverse to the grandest architectural effects, or at least to be kept in
severe subordination to the serener character of the prevalent lines.
But as they are opposed to the seriousness of majesty on the one hand,
so they are to the weight of dulness on the other; and I know not any
features which make the contrast between continental domestic
architecture, and our own, more humiliatingly felt, or which give so
sudden a feeling of new life and delight, when we pass from the streets
of London to those of Abbeville or Rouen, as the quaint points and
pinnacles of the roof gables and turrets. The commonest and heaviest
roof may be redeemed by a spike at the end of it, if it is set on with
any spirit; but the foreign builders have (or had, at least) a peculiar
feeling in this, and gave animation to the whole roof by the fringe of
its back, and the spike on its forehead, so that all goes together, like
the dorsal fins and spines of a fish: but our spikes have a dull,
screwed on, look; a far-off relationship to the nuts of machinery; and
our roof fringes are sure to look like fenders, as if they were meant to
catch ashes out of the London smoke-clouds.

Sec. IX. Stone finials and crockets are, I think, to be considered in
architecture, what points and flashes of light are in the color of
painting, or of nature. There are some landscapes whose best character
is sparkling, and there is a possibility of repose in the midst of
brilliancy, or embracing it,--as on the fields of summer sea, or summer
land:

"Calm, and deep peace, on this high wold,
And on the dews that drench the furze,
And on the silvery gossamers,
_That twinkle into green and gold_."

And there are colorists who can keep their quiet in the midst of a
jewellery of light; but, for the most part, it is better to avoid
breaking up either lines or masses by too many points, and to make the
few points used exceedingly precious. So the best crockets and finials
are set, like stars, along the lines, and at the points, which they
adorn, with considerable intervals between them, and exquisite delicacy
and fa