same ground. The one book that now seems wanted to complete the series of publications on the subject is a clear and concise, but com- plete, narrative of the rise and progress of the style, with just a suffi- cient amount of illustration to render it intelligible. Two volumes in 8vo., of 500 pages each, might suffice for the distillation of all that is contained in the 1001 volumes above alluded to ; and with 1000 illustrations, if well selected, the forms and peculiarities of the style might be rendered sufficiently clear. But less would certainly not suffice. Under these circumstances, it will be easily understood that nothing of the sort can be attempted in this work. With only one- tenth of the requisite space available, and less than that propoition of illustration, all that can be proposed is to sketch the great leading features of the subject, to estimate the value of the practice of the English architects as compared with those on the Continent, and to point out the differences which arose between their metliods and ours, in consequence of either the local or social jjeculiarities of the various nationalities. This compression is hardly to be regretted in .the present instance, since any one may with very little trouble master the main features of the history in some of the many popular works which have been pub- lished on the subject, and all have access to the buildings themselves. It need hardly l)e added, that these are far better and truer exponents of the feelings and aspirations of those who erected them than all the books that ever were written. Unless a man learns to read the lessons these stone books so vividly convey, by an earnest personal investiga- tion of the monuments themselves, of one style at least, he will hardly ever be able to understand the subject ; but for the purpose of such a study, the English Mediaeval architecture is perhaps the most complete and perfect. Nowhere else can all the gradations of change be so easily traced ; and in no other style was there so little inter- ference from extraneous causes. Throughout, the English sought only to erect the building then most suitable to its destination, Avith the best materials available for the purpose ; and the i-esult is therefore generally more satisfactory and more harmonious than in other countries where the architects were more trammelled by precedents, or more influenced by local peculiarities.
