The final part of this second or modern architectural cycle lies still
in the future. It is not unreasonable to believe that the movement
toward mysticism, of which modern theosophy is a phase and the
spiritualization of science an episode, will flower out into an
architecture which will be in some sort a reincarnation of and a
return to the Gothic spirit, employing new materials, new methods,
and developing new forms to show forth the spirit of the modern world,
without violating ancient verities.

In studying these crucial periods in the history of European
architecture it is possible to trace a gradual growth or unfolding
as of a plant. It is a fact fairly well established that the Greeks
derived their architecture and ornament from Egypt; the Romans in
turn borrowed from the Greeks; while a Gothic cathedral is a lineal
descendant from a Roman basilica.

[Illustration 2]

[Illustration 3]

The Egyptians in their constructions did little more than to place
enormous stones on end, and pile one huge block upon another. They
used many columns placed close together: the spaces which they spanned
were inconsiderable. The upright or supporting member may be said to
have been in Egyptian architecture the predominant one. A vertical
line therefore may be taken as the simplest and most abstract symbol
of Egyptian architecture (Illustration 2). It remained for the Greeks
fully to develop the lintel. In their architecture the vertical
member, or column, existed solely for the sake of the horizontal