Excerpt from The Horticulturist, and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste, Vol. 6: Devoted to Horticulture, Landscape Gardening, Rural Architecture, Botany, Pomology, Entomology, Rural Economy, &C., January to December, 1851
What, among all the edifices that compose a country town or village, is that which the inhabitants should most love and reverence, - should most respect and admire among themselves, and should feel most pleasure in showing to a stranger?
"We imagine the answer ready upon the lips of every one of our readers in the country, and rising at once to utterance, is - the Village Church.
And yet, are our village churches winning and attractive in their exterior and interior? Is one drawn to admire them at first sight, by the beauty of their proportions, the expression of holy purpose which they embody, the feeling of harmony with God and man, which they suggest ? Does one get to love the very stones of which they are composed, because they so completely belong to a building, which looks and is the home of Christian worship, and stands as the type of all that is firmest and deepest in our religious faith and affections?
Alas! we fear there are very few country churches in our land that exert this kind of spell, - a spell which grows out of making stone, and brick, and timber, obey the will of the living soul, and express a religious sentiment. Most persons, most committees, selectmen, vestrymen, and congregations, who have to do with the building of churches, appear indeed, wholly to ignore the fact, that the form and features of a building may he made to express religious, civil, domestic, or a dozen other feelings, as distinctly as the form and features of the human face;- and yet this is a fact as well known by all true architects, as that joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, are capable of irradiating or darkening the countenance. Yes, and we do not say too much, when we add, that right expression in a building for religious purposes, has as much to do with awakening devotional feelings, and begetting an attachment in the heart, as the unmistakable signs of virtue and benevolence in our fellow creatures, have in awakening kindred feeling in our own breasts.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The Horticulturist, and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste, Vol. 6