relation of the roof-mask to the roof
proper, in the Greek type, forms that pediment which gives its most
striking character to the temple, and is the principal recipient of its
sculptural decoration. The relation of these lines, therefore, is just
as important in the Greek as in the Gothic schools.

[Illustration: Fig. XIII.]

Sec. XCI. Secondly, the reader must observe the difference of steepness
in the Romanesque and Gothic gables. This is not an unimportant
distinction, nor an undecided one. The Romanesque gable does not pass
gradually into the more elevated form; there is a great gulf between the
two; the whole effect of all Southern architecture being dependent upon
the use of the flat gable, and of all Northern upon that of the acute. I
need not here dwell upon the difference between the lines of an Italian
village, or the flat tops of most Italian towers, and the peaked gables
and spires of the North, attaining their most fantastic developement, I
believe, in Belgium: but it may be well to state the law of separation,
namely, that a Gothic gable _must_ have all its angles acute, and a
Romanesque one _must_ have the upper one obtuse: or, to give the reader
a simple practical rule, take any gable, _a_ or _b_, Fig. XIII., and
strike a semicircle on its base; if its top rises above the semicircle,
as at _b_, it is a Gothic gable; if it falls beneath it, a Romanesque
one; but the best forms in each group are those which are distinctly
steep, or distinctly low. In the figure _f_ is, perhaps, the average of
Romanesque slope, and _g_ of Gothic.

[Illustration: Fig. XIV.]

Sec. XCII. But although we do not find a transition from one school into
the other in the slope of the gables, there is often a confusion between
the two schools in the association of the gable with the arch below it.
It has just been stated that the pure Romanesque condition is the round
arch under the low gable, _a_, Fig. XIV., and the pure Gothic condition
is the pointed arch under the high gable, _b_. But in the passage from
one style to the other, we sometimes find the two conditions reversed;
the pointed arch under a low gable, as _d_, or the round arch under a
high gable, as _c_. The form _d_ occurs in the tombs of Verona, and _c_
in the doors of Venice.

Sec. XCIII. We have thus determined the relation of Gothic to the other
architectures of the world, as far as regards the main lines of its
construction; but there is still one word which