g out this grey, shadowy, many-pinnacled
image of the Gothic spirit within us; and discerning what fellowship
there is between it and our Northern hearts. And if, at any point of the
inquiry, I should interfere with any of the reader's previously formed
conceptions, and use the term Gothic in any sense which he would not
willingly attach to it, I do not ask him to accept, but only to examine
and understand, my interpretation, as necessary to the intelligibility
of what follows in the rest of the work.

Sec. IV. We have, then, the Gothic character submitted to our analysis,
just as the rough mineral is submitted to that of the chemist, entangled
with many other foreign substances, itself perhaps in no place pure, or
ever to be obtained or seen in purity for more than an instant; but
nevertheless a thing of definite and separate nature, however
inextricable or confused in appearance. Now observe: the chemist defines
his mineral by two separate kinds of character; one external, its
crystalline form, hardness, lustre, &c.; the other internal, the
proportions and nature of its constituent atoms. Exactly in the same
manner, we shall find that Gothic architecture has external forms, and
internal elements. Its elements are certain mental tendencies of the
builders, legibly expressed in it; as fancifulness, love of variety,
love of richness, and such others. Its external forms are pointed
arches, vaulted roofs, &c. And unless both the elements and the forms
are there, we have no right to call the style Gothic. It is not enough
that it has the Form, if it have not also the power and life. It is not
enough that it has the Power, if it have not the form. We must therefore
inquire into each of these characters successively; and determine first,
what is the Mental Expression, and secondly, what the Material Form, of
Gothic architecture, properly so called.

1st. Mental Power or Expression. What characters, we have to discover,
did the Gothic builders love, or instinctively express in their work, as
distinguished from all other builders?

Sec. V. Let us go back for a moment to our chemistry, and note that, in
defining a mineral by its constituent parts, it is not one nor another
of them, that can make up the mineral, but the union of all: for
instance, it is neither in charcoal, nor in oxygen, nor in lime, that
there is the making of chalk, but in the combination of all three in
certain measures; they are all found in very different