g, from the first century to the fifteenth; but
the moral habits to which England in this age owes the kind of greatness
that she has,--the habits of philosophical investigation, of accurate
thought, of domestic seclusion and independence, of stern self-reliance,
and sincere upright searching into religious truth,--were only traceable
in the features which were the distinctive creation of the Gothic
schools, in the veined foliage, and thorny fretwork, and shadowy niche,
and buttressed pier, and fearless height of subtle pinnacle and crested
tower, sent like an "unperplexed question up to Heaven."[68]

Sec. LXXVIII. Last, because the least essential, of the constituent
elements of this noble school, was placed that of REDUNDANCE,--the
uncalculating bestowal of the wealth of its labor. There is, indeed,
much Gothic, and that of the best period, in which this element is
hardly traceable, and which depends for its effect almost exclusively on
loveliness of simple design and grace of uninvolved proportion: still,
in the most characteristic buildings, a certain portion of their effect
depends upon accumulation of ornament; and many of those which have most
influence on the minds of men, have attained it by means of this
attribute alone. And although, by careful study of the school, it is
possible to arrive at a condition of taste which shall be better
contented by a few perfect lines than by a whole facade covered with
fretwork, the building which only satisfies such a taste is not to be
considered the best. For the very first requirement of Gothic
architecture being, as we saw above, that it shall both admit the aid,
and appeal to the admiration, of the rudest as well as the most refined
minds, the richness of the work is, paradoxical as the statement may
appear, a part of its humility. No architecture is so haughty as that
which is simple; which refuses to address the eye, except in a few clear
and forceful lines; which implies, in offering so little to our regards,
that all it has offered is perfect; and disdains, either by the
complexity or the attractiveness of its features, to embarrass our
investigation, or betray us into delight. That humility, which is the
very life of the Gothic school, is shown not only in the imperfection,
but in the accumulation, of ornament. The inferior rank of the workman
is often shown as much in the richness, as the roughness, of his work;
and if the co-operation of every hand, and the sympat