As an illustration, let us compare the Laocoön, of sculpture; the Halls of Karnak, of architecture; the Dead March, of music; the “Descent from the Cross,” of painting, with the “Dancing Faun,” the arabesques of the Renaissance, the waltzes of Chopin, and the gay feasts depicted by Paolo Veronese, and the contrast shows us that each branch of an universal art expresses the opposite feelings of gravity or tragedy, of joy or comedy, each in its separate manner. In designing, questions arise every moment which can only be decided by an innate sentiment of what is good and appropriate. There are no fixed laws governing the height of a spire or the projection of a moulding; they are matters which depend upon correct feeling, or, in other words, upon educated taste. If it were not so, art would become a mechanical science, and could no longer be called by that name. Emotion has no place in mechanics, but it has great influence in the arts. We know the Greeks were an emotional race, and it is said that Michael Angelo wept before a beautiful statue or painting; and the works of the people and of the individual were proportionate to the depth of their feelings, and have perhaps never been excelled. Let us, therefore, commence this study—for the omega of this book is but the alpha of architecture—despising none of its delicate subtleties, and endeavour to grasp its principles, in the hope of doing our share in its further advance, laying aside the petty gratification of our vanity in a genuine affection for our art. THE END TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to the corresponding illustrations. The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references. Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources. Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book. Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. Page 21: “tenemos” replaced by “temenos”. 31: “Chilambaram” replaced by “Chidambaram”. 32: “baldaquins” replaced by “baldachins”. 40: “ababaster” replaced by “alabaster”. 111: “Adb-el-Rhaman” replaced by “Abd-el-Rhaman”. 119: “continuons” replaced by “continuous”. 126: “weer” replaced by “were”.