of technical
qualities, we can only approximate to the value of expressional
qualities: and besides this, the looking for the technical qualities
first will enable us to cast a large quantity of rubbish aside at once,
and so to narrow the difficult field of inquiry into expression: we
shall get rid of Chinese pagodas and Indian temples, and Renaissance
Palladianisms, and Alhambra stucco and filigree, in one great rubbish
heap; and shall not need to trouble ourselves about their expression, or
anything else concerning them. Then taking the buildings which have been
rightly put together, and which show common sense in their structure, we
may look for their farther and higher excellences; but on those which
are absurd in their first steps we need waste no time.

16. STRENGTH OF SHAFTS.

I could have wished, before writing this chapter, to have given more
study to the difficult subject of the strength of shafts of different
materials and structure; but I cannot enter into every inquiry which
general criticism might suggest, and this I believe to be one which
would have occupied the reader with less profit than many others: all
that is necessary for him to note is, that the great increase of
strength gained by a tubular form in iron shafts, of given solid
contents, is no contradiction to the general principle stated in the
text, that the strength of materials is most available when they are
most concentrated. The strength of the tube is owing to certain
properties of the arch formed by its sides, not to the dispersion of its
materials: and the principle is altogether inapplicable to stone shafts.
No one would think of building a pillar of a succession of sandstone
rings; however strong it might be, it would be still stronger filled up,
and the substitution of such a pillar for a solid one of the same
contents would lose too much space; for a stone pillar, even when solid,
must be quite as thick as is either graceful or convenient, and in
modern churches is often too thick as it is, hindering sight of the
preacher, and checking the sound of his voice.

17. ANSWER TO MR. GARBETT.

Some three months ago, and long after the writing of this passage, I met
accidentally with Mr. Garbett's elementary Treatise on Design. (Weale,
1850.) If I had cared about the reputation of originality, I should have
been annoyed--and was so, at first, on finding Mr. Garbett's
illustrations of the subject exactly the same as mine, even to