New England Puritan. But a little later, during what may be called the "mediæval" period, the most permanently valuable work was done, the work that is entitled to our respectful and affectionate consideration. With excellent discrimination the builders modified the proportions of the columns, pilasters and entablatures with which at first they framed and embellished their front doors and afterwards the entire façades of their more ambitious structures.
      Speaking in a general way, the variations from the formulas of classic proportions were in the direction of more delicacy and attenuation in the pilasters and columns, an exaggeration of the entasis, and the omission of elaborate ornamentation. The latter, perhaps, in consequence of their preference for the Ionic and plainer orders to those more highly decorated. These variations were in the line of natural evolution, which doubtless accounts for their excellence. In the main they resulted from the material employed, which was mostly thin, soft boards, from the rarity of skilled labor, and from the numerous difficulties in the way of successful imitation in wood of what was originally a massive stone construction, — difficulties that become disastrous when the wood is exposed to an inclement and variable climate.
      Some of the church spires designed