ry objection, and reconciling every
apparent contradiction, which might suggest itself to the minds of
hearers with whom, probably, from first to last, I had not a single
exactly correspondent idea relating to the matters under discussion, it
seems unnecessary to notice any of them in particular. But as this
volume may perhaps fall into the hands of readers who have not time to
refer to the works in which my views have been expressed more at large,
and as I shall now not be able to write or to say anything more about
architecture for some time to come, it may be useful to state here, and
explain in the shortest possible compass, the main gist of the
propositions which I desire to maintain respecting that art; and also to
note and answer, once for all, such arguments as are ordinarily used by
the architects of the modern school to controvert these propositions.
They may be reduced under six heads.

1. That Gothic or Romanesque construction is nobler than Greek
construction.

2. That ornamentation is the principal part of architecture.

3. That ornamentation should be visible.

4. That ornamentation should be natural.

5. That ornamentation should be thoughtful.

6. And that therefore Gothic ornamentation is nobler than Greek
ornamentation, and Gothic architecture the only architecture which
should now be built.

58. Proposition 1st.--_Gothic or Romanesque construction is nobler than
Greek construction._[20] That is to say, building an arch, vault, or
dome, is a nobler and more ingenious work than laying a flat stone or
beam over the space to be covered. It is, for instance, a nobler and
more ingenious thing to build an arched bridge over a stream, than to
lay two pine-trunks across from bank to bank; and, in like manner, it is
a nobler and more ingenious thing to build an arch over a window, door,
or room, than to lay a single flat stone over the same space.

[Footnote 20: The constructive value of Gothic architecture is, however,
far greater than that of Romanesque, as the pointed arch is not only
susceptible of an infinite variety of forms and applications to the
weight to be sustained, but it possesses, in the outline given to its
masonry at its perfect periods, the means of self-sustainment to a far
greater degree than the round arch. I pointed out, for, I believe, the
first time, the meaning and constructive value of the Gothic cusp, in
page 129 of the first volume of the "Stones of Venice." That statement