I admit that there is some ground for such a caution:--there is a mysterious fascination about Italy, which has led astray many who have visited it before they had grounded themselves firmly upon a Northern foundation; but is this a reason for rejecting all the lessons she offers? Was not Italy the land of ancient art, of painting, of sculpture, of mosaic-work? Is she not the land of marbles and richly-coloured material, and the land of ancient municipal institutions, and of the edifices to which they gave birth? Her Romanesque architecture was the parent stock of our own; and if our Gothic was in its turn the stem from which hers sprang, surely its transplantation into so prolific a soil offers the greatest possible _primâ facie_ grounds for expecting a rich variety to spring forth from it--and such has been the result. It is for us to use it with judgment: rejecting what is in its own nature defective; not bringing into the North any features which are the result of a Southern climate, but judiciously culling such suggestions as will with advantage unite themselves to our English nucleus; and especially let us take advantage of the lessons it affords us in the use of rich materials of mosaic and fresco painting, and in any suggestions it offers for the perfecting of our secular architecture. Only let us do so with judgment, never forgetting that it is _in England_ that we are working, and that if we borrow ideas from France, from Germany, or from more southern lands, those ideas must be expressed _in English_--a language in art, as in literature, of whose antecedents we find abundant cause to be proud. Let us also remember that, though we must be ever learning, it is not by this alone that an art is to be generated; that we must _act for ourselves_, as well as learn from others; and that it is to our own vigorous and manly exertions we must trust to make the art we are reviving shape itself to the necessities and the spirit of the age we live in. LECTURE VI. The Rationale of Gothic Architecture. Contradictory opinions as to the character and origin of Gothic Architecture--True causes of its origin--The arch--The Romans eminently practical--Two defects in their architecture--Practical improvements--Use of small materials--Arches in rims--Sub-ordinating rims--Imposts--Pilaster capitals--Decorative columns--Romanesque arch decorations--Labels--Clustered columns--Weight of arches on columns--Doorways--Windows--Rejection of ancient rules of proportion--Efforts to improve construction and decoration in the twelfth century--Absolute demand for an arch of less pressure and for an abutment of greater resistance--_Ribbed_ as distinguished from _arris_ vaulting--Reasons for adopting the former--Pointed arch as effecting proportion.