8. But all these disadvantages might in some degree be counteracted, all
these abuses in some degree prevented, were it not for the slight
attention paid by our architects to that branch of the art which I have
above designated as the Poetry of Architecture. All unity of feeling
(which is the first principle of good taste) is neglected; we see
nothing but incongruous combination: we have pinnacles without height,
windows without light, columns with nothing to sustain, and buttresses
with nothing to support. We have parish paupers smoking their pipes and
drinking their beer under Gothic arches and sculptured niches; and quiet
old English gentlemen reclining on crocodile stools, and peeping out of
the windows of Swiss chalets.
9. I shall attempt, therefore, to endeavor to illustrate the principle
from the neglect of which these abuses have arisen; that of unity of
feeling, the basis of all grace, the essence of all beauty. We shall
consider the architecture of nations as it is influenced by their
feelings and manners, as it is connected with the scenery in which it is
found, and with the skies under which it was erected; we shall be led as
much to the street and the cottage as to the temple and the tower; and
shall be more interested in buildings raised by feeling, than in those
corrected by rule.
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