Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/242

198 should aim at perfect chastity and truth, and seek perfection, as nearly as is in the power of man, by mental and spiritual effort, to attain it.

New York and her great sister, Brooklyn, vie, with all other cities in the Union, to rear up suitable monuments to God; and in the examples thus presented might the student find food for his inquiring mind, in marking the distinctive features of each, and culling the too few beauties from the extraneous fallacies of the numerous elevations of this sacred field of Design.

Without any intention to be hypercritical, we must say, that it would have been well for the living fame of these architects, had very many of our church designs been better digested whilst on paper, and their discrepancies weeded out, before they were suffered to rise, as too enduring monuments of bad taste, painful to the intelligent mind, and unpleasing to the general observer.

As regards the color of material in ecclesiastical construction, we have an idea, of which we cannot divest ourselves, at the same time that we honestly hold ourselves open to conviction; that is; that the tint or color of the material should, as much as the style itself, convey to the mind's eye, the spirit of the design. To illustrate, we will adduce, as an instance of the opposite, the great Roman Catholic Cathedral, now in course of erection on Fifth Avenue, New York. The style is Gothic, but the material is white marble throughout. Now, we hold that the cloister shade conveyed to the mind by this peculiar style is completely at variance with the vivid brightness of white marble. We anticipate the defence of its admirers, that white is the emblem of purity. Very true. But why choose the sombre Gothic to clothe with it? The Ro man and Grecian styles are objectionable to some, as having been the servants of heathenism. But, if such be an objection, and white marble must be the chosen material, why not have taken the Italian style? There are numerous specimens in Europe, which the architects of our day might still improve upon; and, although they could not surpass the Duomo of the great Florentine, they might well produce a more desirable design for the church in its entirety.

This field of ecclesiastical architecture is a vast one, and not to be lightly treated. We will, therefore, leave it for the present, to be shortly revisited; not with the ruthless intention of ravaging criticism, but with the cool, well-meant object of contemplation and investigating study.

N the time-honored history of the Old World, there is not to be found one parallel instance of the sudden uprise and magic growth of the City of New York. Rome's birth, progress, and culminating greatness, have been, and ever will be subjects for the delighted student to revel in; yet the advancement of that Empire of the Seven Hills loses its charm of wonder, in the development of the day, in this progressive republic of ours, controlled as it is, not by the capacity of a single man, but by the combined mental power of a self-governing people.

What New York might have been under a continuance of the Colonial system, it is easy to conjecture from a