ne is concerned,
they are not Gothic unless the pointed arch be the principal form
adopted either in the stone vaulting or the timbers of the roof proper.

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.

Sec. LXXXII. 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;[69] and all the so-called aspiration of
Gothic architecture is, as above noticed (Vol. I. Chap. XII. Sec. VI.),
nothing more than its developement. 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."

Sec. LXXXIII. 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 everywhere), or in
various other ways inconvenient, flat ceilings may be used, and yet the
Gothic shall not lose its purity. But in the roof-mask, there can be no
necessity nor reason for a change of form: the gable is the best; and if
any other--dome, or bulging crown, or whatsoever else--be employed at
all, it must be in pure caprice, and wilful transgression of law. And
wherever, therefore, this is done, the Gothic has lost its character; it
is pure G