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In far the greater portion of the cathedrals belonging to the Saracenic order of architecture which I have examined, (exceeding thirty,) I observed the following characters:

These cathedrals in general, are founded in the form of a cross: I suppose, out of reverence to the sacred Person who expiated the sins of man, by dying upon this Roman engine of infamy and cruelty: for it was equally infamous as it was cruel, in the estimation of that community, to suffer such a death. The ground-plan consists of three parallel aisles, from east to west, and one cross aisle, or rather broad area, from north to south; which cross aisle is considerably nearer to the east end of the cathedral than to the west; thus forming a cross of the same shape as that on which the Redeemer of mankind suffered death.

The position of these cathedrals, as well as the parish churches, is, in most cases, exactly in accordance with the cardinal points of our sphere: their length being from east to west, and their breadth from north to south. Thus was placed the tabernacle, thus was pitched the camp of Israel in the wilderness, thus was founded the temple at Jerusalem, and the pyramids in Egypt; and thus did Pyrrhus, who had opportunities of viewing the camp of Gilgal, pitch his camp; and and in imitation of his, thus did the Romans pitch their camps in every part of the world. This circumstance is of especial use to travellers. If they can but behold a church, or even the square tower of a church, the cardinal points come out at once; and they are instantly assured as to the direction in which they are moving.

The elevation of those cathedrals, presents in general three square towers, considerably elevated above the fabric itself. One of these occupies the centre, where the middle aisle and the cross aisles meet in order to form the cross; and lest its walls should obstruct the body of the cathedral, this centre tower is surmounted upon four piers and arches, which piers range with the columns of the side and cross aisles, and being hewed into clusters, although they are massive, the accordance is appropriate. Thus the tower is imperceptible in the body of the cathedral, and the pointed arches, which are the foundations of its walls, seem a continuation of those which form the side and cross aisles. The other square towers are

and the other on the south side thereof. These three towers generally correspond, as to form, but not as to size: the centre tower is much more massive and taller than the other two; which correspond both in form and size. In some cases, they are all crowned with battlements and tall decorated pinnacles, and in others surmounted with lofty spires. An im mense window generally occupies the whole east end, upon which the architect appears to have expended all the science as well as art in his possession; while two lesser windows, of nearly the same form, are exhibited in the north and south gables, at the ends of the cross aisle and another, of equal size with the two last, occupies the whole space between the two towers at the west end.

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The division of these cathedrals into centre and side aisles, gives great facilities, both as to roofing and lighting these immense edifices. In roofing, the columns which separate the centre from the side aisles, are piers to pointed arches, which crown their capitals, and these are bases to solid walls: thus two walls arise, which extend from end to end of these fabrics, and divide the roof into three parts. This division shortens the bearing of the principal beams so materially, that they are severally only one-third the length they would be if the roof was one. This is a most desirable attainment in constructing large fabrics; because it is the long bearing of the principal beams which creates such imminent danger to those who occupy the edifice. Numbers of these buildings are of such vast dimensions, that beams which would reach from side to side could not have been procured; and if they could, either whole or by splicing, have been extended over the vast area which the floor of some of these cathedrals occupy, as they must have been suspended by their extremities, notwithstanding the art of trussing exists in a degree of perfection scarcely ever to be exceeded, the danger would have been extreme. If light was admitted through the outer walls only, the side aisles would be light, while the centre aisle, which is the most important, would be dark: but on carrying up the walls which rest upon the columns on each side the centre aisle, windows may be and are constructed therein, which admit light from above to fall thereon, and render the centre aisle as light as the side aisles.

Perhaps no form could have been devised more adapted, than this treble cross

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to the pompous pageantry of Rome. The magnificent windows at the east end, directly over the altar, fraught with paintings of legendary lore, the lofty choir, immediately adjoining, crowded with thrones, canopies, stalls, carvings, niches, and statues, finished by the imposing screen and elevated organ, and accommodated on the right and left with sacristies, vestries, shrines, and altars, amidst the side-aisles, gave the most imposing effect to those awful ceremonies, in which the frequent change of person vestments predominated; and held even elevated minds in trammels, not to be shaken off without an effort too great for those days of darkness. The centre, side, and cross aisles were equally genial to those pageant processions, wherein the host was elevated, or relics were displayed, or the images of the Virgin and saints; long, lofty, and spacious, and accessible each from each, not only at their extremities, but every where between the bases of the columns, the longest processions, by preconcerted routes, found ample room for display and effect therein; secure from inclement storms, and aided by the imposing architecture which surrounded them. The Protestant cathedral, stripped of this unreal, presents a vacancy which it is attempted to fill up by stately monuments, erected to the memory of the dead; and this would certainly do much towards effecting the intended object, if genial designs were disposed in appropriate situations, so as to compose a scientific whole but, alas, in what we now see, we behold the fac-simile of a statuary's laboratory; or rather a modern image of crudity, reminding us of all the confusions launched upon ancient Babel.

Having examined, with great attention, numerous remains of extensive edifices in every state, from an unroofed fabric to a heap of ruins, I have observed a striking difference between the wrecks of a Grecian and a Gothic structure. A semicircular arch, the characteristic of the Grecian order, rests upon its two extremities; it is therefore suspended in air. The crown of this arch has a tendency to descend perpendicularly; this tendency would, if they were not backed with solid materials, throw out or throw up its two sides, and thrust out its extreme points. Hence we have a tendency inward, and four tendencies outward, in the same arch. This semicircular arch also is an erection separate and distinct from the wall which rests upon it: and no portions of the two have that connexion

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in bond, which all the courses of a wall have each with each. Whenever, therefore, an edifice fraught with these arches falls to decay, the large arches, losing their collateral supports, come down into total ruin; and in coming down, bring with them large portions of the fabric in a state of ruin equal to themselves. Thus out of a large edifice, a few prominent parts only remain; such as a vestibule, or staircase, or portico, &c. &c. while indiscriminate ruin lords it over all the rest.

A pointed arch, the characteristic of the modern Gothic, may be and frequently is built up with and bonded into the wall; in this case it consists of solid ashlar, similar to the wall itself. The extremity of every individual course of ashlar, in an arch thus constructed, has a tendency to topple over the preceding course, and, thus coming forward, fall perpendicularly down the opening over which the arch is suspended; but the jutting of the two segments at the extreme altitude prevents this from taking place in the topmost courses; and every indi vidual course of ashlar counteracts this tendency in the course below it, from the springing to the crown of the arch. There is, therefore, very little thrust outward in an arch thus constructed: the courses and connexion of the segments preserves the equilibrium of the whole and so long as the wall continues upright, the arch, as a component part thereof, continues also. The courses of these arches being all horizontal, rest each upon each, perpendicularly; whereas the courses of a semicircular arch lie in every angle, from a horizontal to a perpendicular direction, and every course has a different bearing.

These causes operate upon a fabric passing into a state of ruin, and give to each order, features the very reverse of each other. While the arches of a Grecian structure lie, with a large proportion of its other members, brought down by their fall, in indiscriminate ruin beneath your feet; the arches of a Gothic edifice soar above your head, secure in the ashlar wall into which they are built; and form objects of veneration, in conjunction with the columns on which they rest, impressing every beholder with awe at the exalted grandeur of the scene.

Thus it appears, the modern Gothic or Saracenic architecture possesses original features; and that, although invented in the dark ages, it is not a modification of other orders, but a distinct order, and worthy of this distinction.

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When we behold an edifice of chaste architecture and fine proportions, dedicated to, and wholly set apart for God, for the worship of the Only True God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, in His Spirit, we rejoice in this appropriate adaptation of science and art to the very object to which the wisdom of gratitude would direct the affections of man, viz. the Most Worthy,--the beneficent Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of mankind. From Him hath flowed, from Him doth flow, and from Him will flow, for ever and for ever, all the good of man: to Him, therefore ought to flow, with his best affections, in one all-hallowed stream, the gratitude of mankind. "The gold is mine, the silver is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills; yea, the world is mine, and the fulness thereof, saith Jehovah." To render up to Him the best, is therefore, only to render Him up His own; and to withhold it from Him to whom it of right belongs, is a robbery of the most serious cast. To desecrate a temple built expressly for, and dedicated to the Most High God, by profanation with idols and idolatrous rites, is a contempt which we could hardly believe so puny a being as man could be guilty of in the face of the Omnipotent. Yet, even this atrocious crime has been perpetrated such acts did Israel in Jerusalem itself; and such acts have been committed, not only by the seed of Abraham, but by the Gentiles; yea, even by men professing themselves to be Christians. Man, alas! can therefore, not only withhold, but put forth his hand, and take from God that which the gratitude of others had dedicated to Him.

The Grecian orders of architecture were originally polluted by appropriation to the worst purposes of idolatry. The temples, with their whole suites of apartments, as well as their courts, were devoted to demons; and demon worship throughout, in its most obscene and atrocious rites and usages, pervaded all these edifices and even the most sumptuous mansions were devoted to this debasing idolatry; for there the household gods appeared, as within the temple appeared the idol or idols to which it was dedicated. In the celebration of these services the worst passions of mankind were continually pandered to, and the worst actions of fallen beings held up to admiration; while the adorations of man were addressed to demons, or heroes, many of whom proved by their acts on earth, that they were of their father the devil.

126.-VOL. XI.

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If christian churches were in after-ages erected in the Grecian order, were they not desecrated by the idolatrous usages of the Romish church, at no distant period from their consecration to the Most High God? Pictures, relics, images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, saints and sinners not a few, in these were knelt unto, invoked, and honoured; and services to these superseded the sacred word and the holy service of the One Lord, He who created all things. To say these were not, and are not worshipped, is only to say what the heathen always declared, and do declare unto this day; viz. that they did not and do not worship the idol, the wood, the stone, the silver, or the gold, of which the idol was composed, but the god, which, after consecration, they supposed resided therein. Where then is the difference?

But if the Grecian orders of architecture were polluted to these vile and debasing purposes, can it be said of the Gothic and Saracenic, these are pure? Alas, alas! these have also inherited the baneful pollution of former orders; and many of them to this day are the very sinks of corruption, in countries only divided from our own by a narrow strait of the ocean.

In

If we turn to the human cranium, we immediately perceive that the jaws do not advance, or that they advance at most in a very trifling degree, beyond a line drawn perpendicularly from the forehead. some instances indeed, this line is not touched;-a peculiarity strikingly observable in the heads of the ancient figures of gods, or heroes. But when we turn to the brute creation, we see in this respect a wide difference; the prolongation of the jaws exhibiting a marked characteristic. To this rule, the ape tribe, although approaching, in general external conformation, the nearest to man, offers no exception. In the human subject, and we believe in most species of the ape-tribe, the upper jaw consists of two portions;—but in the lower

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orders, besides these, we find two additional bones, placed in the front, and between the others; they are termed the intermaxillary or labial bones, and contain the cutting-teeth. In the order rodentia, and some others, these bones are so large as to constitute the forepart of the mouth, concealing in a manner the true maxillary bones, and forming also a portion of the external boundary of the orbit.

The lower jaw, in man, at least in the adult, consists of one solid undivided bone, -but in many quadrupeds it is constituted by two portions, united at the apex, (where the chin is in man,) by intervening cartilages and ligaments. The absence of a chin, as well as a greater length in proportion to the cranium, distinguishes it particularly from that in the human subject.

The condyles, or processes by which the lower jaw is articulated to the skull, are found to vary according to the nature of the food on which the individual lives. For instance, in carnivorous animals, their form and situation are such as to prevent rotating motion, permitting it only in a vertical direction;-while in most graminivorous animals, they are rounded, and their construction and mode of articulation are such, as to admit of motion at once hingelike and rotating, thus enabling the animal to grind its food into pulp or powder.

In the order rodentia, we find the lower jaw capable to a certain extent, of retraction and protrusion, and by this means the powerful teeth are capable of being applied the more effectually, and with the greater precision, to the hard substances, as bark or nuts, which, to many of these animals, afford their principal food.

In man, the lower jaw admits of considerable facility of motion in almost every direction, and its construction is such as to fit it for the multiform kinds of food upon which he subsists.

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of the teeth, especially as they vary in number and figure in the quadrupeds of every different order.

The teeth are fixed firmly into the jaws, by means of fangs or roots, and covered with a beautiful white enamel of great hardness. They are not solid throughout, but have a canal proceeding from the extremities of the roots into the body, through which a nervous filament and minute artery are transmitted.

In man, the teeth, from the differences observable in their shape and use, are divided into four classes: namely, incisores or cutting teeth;-cuspidati or canine teeth;-bicuspidati, or teeth with double points; and molares or grinders. Their number is as follows;-in each jaw, four incisores, two cuspidati,-four bicuspidati,-and six molares.

In the various orders of the mammalia, the teeth both in shape and number vary exceedingly, and have an especial reference to food and habits, more or less obvious, save in a few instances, in which certain relationships invariably occurring between the teeth and the general structure of the system, (as we have noticed previously in ruminating animals,) cannot be satisfactorily accounted for.

In taking a survey of the human race, we shall perhaps be surprised at the great variety which the cranium presents, with respect to shape and general expression. Among all the inferior animals, in the individuals of the same species, especially in those unreclaimed from their state of nature and freedom, similar differences are scarcely to be observed;-at all events, they do not prevail to so unlimited an extent as in the human race.

But as, among the individuals of the same species in the brute creation, not, generally speaking, that position and instinct, so variety of shape and expression is hardly perhaps to be looked for.qu

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It is most probable, we think, that the shape and contour of the skull are COA primarily modelled in infancy by the pressure of the expanding brain.-If, therefore, a difference in disposition and t talents be connected, (and it certainly must be allowed,) with the organization of the brain, we may rationally expect all that endless variety in size and contour, which is ever to be seen around us.

But besides n

na may be supposed to talents and dispohave a considerable share in modifying the figure of the skull, in as much as we may believe it to affect the organ it encloses.