religious worship, not on a scale of magnificence to equal the St. Peter's of Rome, or the St. Paul's of London, nor the ancient Abbeys or Minsters of this country, yet, generally speaking, on a par with many or most of the modern religious edifices throughout the United Kingdom. There are numerous superior specimens of architecture in the United States, which, although neither antique nor original, are highly creditable to the genius and generosity of the American people. Many instances might be enumerated in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and other cities, of different public buildings.

The United States Banking-House at Philadelphia, built on the model of the ancient Parthenon, excels in elegance, and equals in utility, the edifice not only of the Bank of England, but that of any banking-house in the world.

"The Exchange Hotel of New Orleans, in St. Charles Street, is probably the largest of its kind in the world; the cost of the ground and building has amounted to upwards of $600,000. The hotel is two hundred and twenty-eight feet in front by one hundred and ninetysix feet throughout or square. The front view is elevated on a plain basement, fourteen feet high, in the centre of which is a portico containing six columns, projecting from the main building, with four also on either side, receding inward, all in the Corinthian order, and forming an elegant colonnade along twothirds of the front, the other third being solid and

It is six stories high.

ornamented with pilasters. From the basement to the top of the cornice the height is seventy-one feet, but there is an octagon in the centre of the building, seventy feet in diameter, which is raised fifty-three feet above the roof, and surmounted by a dome; above this is an observatory; the whole height from the ground being one hundred and thirteen feet.

"The theatre of New Orleans is on a similar scale of magnificence and magnitude."

We are far from having named all the public buildings worthy of note in the United States. This list is necessarily very limited.

18

CHAPTER XXIII.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE IN THE UNITED

STATES.

DOMESTIC architecture in this country must be adapted to the circumstances and condition of the people. As it is an art originating from necessity, the progress of society must change the architecture of every country, from age to age. As wealth and refinement increase, taste and elegance must be consulted, without destroying convenience and appropriateness. We can no more adopt the style of architecture than the dress of a foreign people. We acknowledge the flowing robes of the Persian to be graceful and becoming; they suit the habits and climate of the country. The fur-clad Russian of the north has conformed his dress to his climate, and made it rich and elegant; yet, as he approaches his neighbours of Turkey, his dress becomes somewhat assimilated to theirs. France is said to give the law of fashion in dress to the civilized world; and the absurdities that

have resulted from following her dictates, have produced ridiculous anomalies in other countries.

In adopting the domestic architecture of foreign countries, we may be equally ridiculous. England, our fatherland, from some resemblance in habits and institutions, might furnish more suitable models for imitation than any other country; yet they would not be perfectly in accordance with our wants. Our architecture must, therefore, be partly indigenous.

Our associations of convenience, home-comfort, and respectability are connected with a certain style of building, which has been evolved by the wants, manners, and customs of the people. Any great deviations from a style that has been thus fixed, cannot be perfectly agreeable. We must improve upon this style, so that domestic architecture may in time be perfectly American. Fig. 34 is decidedly English.

"Nationality is founded in a great degree on feelings and prejudices inculcated and aroused in youth, which

grow inveterate as long as its views are confined to the place of its birth. The love of country will remain with undiminished strength in the cultivated mind; but the national modes of thinking will vanish from the disciplined intellect. Now as it is only by these mannerisms of thought that architecture is affected, we shall find that the more polished the mind of its designer, the less natural will be the building; for its architect will be led away by a search after a model of ideal beauty, and will not be involuntarily guided by deep-rooted feelings, governing irresistibly his heart and hand. He will therefore be in perpetual danger of forgetting the necessary unison of scene and climate, and, following up the chase of the ideal, will neglect the beauty of the natural. We must not, therefore, be surprised if buildings, bearing the impress of the exercise of fine thoughts and high talent in their design,