VI. THE NATURE OF GOTHIC 247

I shall say then, in the first place, that “Gothic architecture is that which uses, if possible, the pointed arch in the roof proper.” This is the first step in our definition.

§ 82. Secondly. Although there may be many advisable or necessary forms for the lower roof or ceiling, there is, in cold countries exposed to rain and snow, only one advisable form for the roof-mask, and that is the gable, for this alone will throw off both rain and snow from all parts of its surface as speedily as possible. Snow can lodge on the top of a dome, not on the ridge of a gable. And thus, as far as roofing is concerned, the gable is a far more essential feature of Northern architecture than the pointed vault, for the one is a thorough necessity, the other often a graceful conventionality; the gable occurs in the timber roof of every dwelling-house and every cottage, but not the vault; and the gable built on a polygonal or circular plan, is the origin of the turret and spire;* and all the so-called aspiration of Gothic architecture is, as above noticed (Vol. I. Chap. XII. § 6), nothing more than its development.¹ So that we must add to our definition another clause, which will be, at present, by far the most important, and it will stand thus: “Gothic architecture is that which uses the pointed arch for the roof proper, and the gable for the roof-mask.”

§ 83. And here, in passing, let us notice a principle as true in architecture as in morals. It is not the compelled, but the wilful transgression of law which corrupts the character. Sin is not in the act, but in the choice. It is a law for Gothic architecture, that it shall use the pointed arch for its roof proper; but because in many cases of domestic building, this becomes impossible for want of room (the whole height of the apartment being required

* Salisbury spire is only a tower with a polygonal gabled roof of stone, and so also the celebrated spires of Caen and Coutances.

¹ [Compare also in Vol. XII. Lectures on Architecture and Painting, §§ 19-21, where the spire of Coutances is illustrated by a woodcut, and that of Salisbury is again referred to.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]