and built in this best period, or while its influence remained, are scarcely less beautiful than many of the old European mediæval campaniles, whose builders had no other motive than to serve God, and expected no other reward than His approval. Happily, many of these spires are still standing, and unless destroyed by lightning from heaven or by fires from the new-fashioned furnaces in the earth, there is no reason, artistic or utilitarian, why they should not serve their consecrated purpose for many generations yet to come. It is true that in many cases the steeple has but little family likeness to the body of the church, — neither for that matter has the preaching of the pulpit to the practice of the people; it is not the logical culmination of the architectural composition, the main building being still of the primitive type, a rectangular, oblong structure, one or two stories in height, with a plain gabled roof. Previous to the present century, the minor secular buildings in their general form and construction were not unlike the churches, except that the cupolas of the court houses, of which there were a few in the middle and southern states, were usually placed symmetrically in the center of the building instead of at the end. Possibly that is one reason why the law of that time was better balanced than the theology.
      Of all that goes under the name of Colonial architecture, the interior finish and fittings that were developed during the hundred years beginning with the second quarter of the last century are undoubtedly the most