with
the five orders, or with any one of the orders,--whatever is Doric, or
Ionic, or Tuscan, or Corinthian, or Composite, or in any way Grecized or
Romanized; whatever betrays the smallest respect for Vitruvian laws, or
conformity with Palladian work,--that we are to endure no more. To
cleanse ourselves of these "cast clouts and rotten rags" is the first
thing to be done in the court of our prison.

Sec. XXXVI. Then, to turn our prison into a palace is an easy thing. We
have seen above, that exactly in the degree in which Greek and Roman
architecture is lifeless, unprofitable, and unchristian, in that same
degree our own ancient Gothic is animated, serviceable, and faithful. We
have seen that it is flexible to all duty, enduring to all time,
instructive to all hearts, honorable and holy in all offices. It is
capable alike of all lowliness and all dignity, fit alike for cottage
porch or castle gateway; in domestic service familiar, in religious,
sublime; simple, and playful, so that childhood may read it, yet clothed
with a power that can awe the mightiest, and exalt the loftiest of human
spirits: an architecture that kindles every faculty in its workman, and
addresses every emotion in its beholder; which, with every stone that is
laid on its solemn walls, raises some human heart a step nearer heaven,
and which from its birth has been incorporated with the existence, and
in all its form is symbolical of the faith, of Christianity. In this
architecture let us henceforward build, alike the church, the palace,
and the cottage; but chiefly let us use it for our civil and domestic
buildings. These once ennobled, our ecclesiastical work will be exalted
together with them: but churches are not the proper scenes for
experiments in untried architecture, nor for exhibitions of unaccustomed
beauty. It is certain that we must often fail before we can again build
a natural and noble Gothic: let not our temples be the scenes of our
failures. It is certain that we must offend many deep-rooted prejudices,
before ancient Christian architecture[56] can be again received by all
of us: let not religion be the first source of such offence. We shall
meet with difficulties in applying Gothic architecture to churches,
which would in no wise affect the designs of civil buildings, for the
most beautiful forms of Gothic chapels are not those which are best
fitted for Protestant worship. As it was noticed in the second volume,
when speaking of th