e in any wise
connected with Gothic architecture--as for instance, Vault, Arch, Spire,
Pinnacle, Battlement, Barbican, Porch, and myriads of such others, words
everlastingly poetical and powerful whenever they occur,--is a most true
and certain index that the things themselves are delightful to you, and
will ever continue to be so. Believe me, you do indeed love these
things, so far as you care about art at all, so far as you are not
ashamed to confess what you feel about them.

[Footnote 12: It has been objected to this comparison that the form of
the pediment does not properly represent that of the rocks of the
Trossachs. The objection is utterly futile, for there is not a single
spire or pinnacle from one end of the Trossachs to the other. All their
rocks are heavily rounded, and the introduction of the word "spire" is a
piece of inaccuracy in description, ventured _merely for the sake of the
Gothic image_. Farther: it has been said that if I had substituted the
word "gable," it would have spoiled the line just as much as the word
"pediment," though "gable" is a Gothic word. Of course it would; but
why? Because "gable" is a term of vulgar domestic architecture, and
therefore destructive of the tone of the heroic description; whereas
"pediment" and "spire" are precisely correlative terms, being each the
crowning feature in ecclesiastical edifices, and the comparison of their
effects in the verse is therefore absolutely accurate, logical, and
just.]

24. In your public capacities, as bank directors, and charity overseers,
and administrators of this and that other undertaking or institution,
you cannot express your feelings at all. You form committees to decide
upon the style of the new building, and as you have never been in the
habit of trusting to your own taste in such matters, you inquire who is
the most celebrated, that is to say, the most employed, architect of the
day. And you send for the great Mr. Blank, and the Great Blank sends you
a plan of a great long marble box with half-a-dozen pillars at one end
of it, and the same at the other; and you look at the Great Blank's
great plan in a grave manner, and you dare say it will be very handsome;
and you ask the Great Blank what sort of a blank check must be filled up
before the great plan can be realized; and you subscribe in a generous
"burst of confidence" whatever is wanted; and when it is all done, and
the great white marble box is set up in your streets, you