,library ,edition ,,the ,,complete ,,works ,,of ,,john ,,ruskin ,,stones ,,of ,,venice ,,volume ,,iii ,,giotto ,,lectures ,,on ,,architecture ,,harbours ,,of ,,england ,a ,,joy ,,forever ,,national ,,library ,,association ,,new ,,york ,,chicago ,,the ,,complete ,,works ,,of ,,john ,,ruskin ,,volume ,x ,,giotto ,,and ,,his ,,works ,,lectures ,,on ,,architecture ,,the ,,harbors ,,of ,,england ,,political ,,economy ,,of ,,art 7,a ,,joy ,,forever7 ,,lectures ,,on ,,architecture ,,and ,,painting ,,delivered ,,at ,,edinburgh ,,in ,,november1 #ahec4 ,,contents4 ,,page ,,preface v ,,lecture ,i4 ,,architecture #a ,,lecture ,,ii4 ,,architecture #cd ,,addenda ,,to ,,lectures ,i4 ,,and ,,ii4 #ef ,,lecture ,,iii4 ,,turner ,,and ,,his ,,works #ge ,,lecture ,,iv4 ,,pre-,,raphaelitism #ajj ,,addenda ,,to ,,lecture ,,iv4 #abc ,,list ,,of ,,plates4 ,facing ,page ,,plate ,i4 ,figs4 #a4 #c4 and #e4 ,illustrative diagrams #c ,,ii4 #b4 ,windows in ,oakham ,castle #e ,,iii4 #d4 and #f4 ,spray of ash-tree1 and improvement of the same on ,greek principles #aj ,,iv4 #g4 ,window in ,dunblane ,cathedral #ae ,v4 #h4 ,mediaeval turret #bj ,,vi4 #i4 and #aj4 ,lombardic towers #bb ,,vii4 #aa4 and #ab4 ,spires at ,coutances and ,rouen #be ,,viii4 #ac4 and #ad4 ,illustrative diagrams #ci ,,ix4 #ae4 ,sculpture at ,lyons #dj ,x4 #af4 ,niche at ,amiens #da ,,xi4 #ag4 and #ah4 ,tiger's head1 and improvement of the same on ,greek principles #dd ,,xii4 #ai4 ,garret window in ,hotel de ,bourgtheroude #ea ,,xiii4 #bj4 and #ba4 ,trees1 as drawn in the #acth century #ha ,,xiv4 #bb4 ,rocks1 as drawn by the school of ,leonardo da ,vinci #hc ,,xv4 #bc4 ,boughs of trees1 after ,titian #hd ,,preface4 ,the following ,lectures are printed1 as far as possible1 just as they were delivered4 ,here and there a sentence which seemed obscure has been mended1 and the passages which had not been previously written1 have been1 of course imperfectly1 supplied from memory4 ,but ,i am well assured that nothing of any substantial importance which was said in the lecture-room1 is either omitted1 or altered in its signification2 with the exception only of a few sentences struck out from the notice of the works of ,turner1 in consequence of the impossibility of engraving the drawings by which they were illustrated1 except at a cost which would have too much raised the price of the volume4 ,some elucidatory remarks have1 however1 been added at the close of the second and fourth ,lectures1 which ,i hope may be of more use than the passages which ,i was obliged to omit4 ,the drawings by which the ,lectures on ,architecture were illustrated have been carefully reduced1 and well transferred to wood by ,mr4 ,thurston ,thompson4 ,those which were given in the course of the notices of schools of painting could not be so transferred1 having been drawn in color2 and ,i have therefore merely had a few lines1 absolutely necessary to make the text intelligible1 copied from engravings4 ,i forgot1 in preparing the second ,lecture for the press1 to quote a passage from ,lord ,lindsay's ,christian ,art1 illustrative of what is said in that lecture 7,sec4 #eb71 respecting the energy of the mediaeval republics4 ,this passage1 describing the circumstances under which the ,campanile of the ,duomo of ,florence was built1 is interesting also as noticing the universality of talent which was required of architects2 and which1 as ,i have asserted in the ,addenda 7,sec4 #fj71 always ought to be required of them4 ,i do not1 however1 now regret the omission1 as ,i cannot easily imagine a better preface to an essay on civil architecture than this simple statement4 ,in #accb1 ,giotto was chosen to erect it 7the ,campanile71 on the ground1 avowedly1 of the universality of his talents1 with the appointment of ,capo ,maestro1 or chief ,architect 7chief ,master ,i should rather write71 of the ,cathedral and its dependencies1 a yearly salary of one hundred gold florins1 and the privilege of citizenship1 under the special understanding that he was not to quit ,florence4 ,his designs being approved of1 the republic passed a decree in the spring of #accd1 that the ,campanile should be built so as to exceed in magnificence1 height1 and excellence of workmanship whatever in that time had been achieved by the ,greeks and ,romans in the time of their utmost power and greatness4 ,the first stone was laid1 accordingly1 with great pomp1 on the #ahth of ,july following1 and the work prosecuted with vigor1 and with such costliness and utter disregard of expense1 that a citizen of ,verona1 looking on1 exclaimed that the republic was taxing her strength too far1 that the united resources of two great monarchs would be insufficient to complete it2 a criticism which the ,signoria resented by confining him for two months in prison1 and afterwards conducting him through the public treasury1 to teach him that the ,florentines could build their whole city of marble1 and not one poor steeple only1 were they so inclined4 ,i see that ,the ,builder1 vol4 xi4 page #fij1 has been endeavoring to inspire the citizens of ,leeds with some pride of this kind respecting their town-hall4 ,the pride would be well1 but ,i sincerely trust that the tower in question may not be built on the design there proposed4 ,i am sorry to have to write a special criticism1 but it must be remembered that the best works1 by the best men living1 are in this age abused without mercy by nameless critics2 and it would be unjust to the public1 if those who have given their names as guarantee for their sincerity never had the courage to enter a protest against the execution of designs which appear to them unworthy4 ,,denmark ,,hill1 #afth ,april #ahed4 ,,lectures ,,on ,,architecture ,,and ,,painting4 ,,lecture ,i4 ,,architecture4 ,delivered ,november #a1 #ahec4 #a4 ,i think myself peculiarly happy in being permitted to address the citizens of ,edinburgh on the subject of architecture1 for it is one which1 they cannot but feel1 interests them nearly4 ,of all the cities in the ,british ,islands1 ,edinburgh is the one which presents most advantages for the display of a noble building2 and which1 on the other hand1 sustains most injury in the erection of a commonplace or unworthy one4 ,you are all proud of your city2 surely you must feel it a duty in some sort to justify your pride2 that is to say1 to give yourselves a right to be proud of it4 ,that you were born under the shadow of its two fantastic mountains1--that you live where from your room windows you can trace the shores of its glittering ,firth1 are no rightful subjects of pride4 ,you did not raise the mountains1 nor shape the shores2 and the historical houses of your ,canongate1 and the broad battlements of your castle1 reflect honor upon you only through your ancestors4 ,before you boast of your city1 before even you venture to call it yours1 ought you not scrupulously to weigh the exact share you have had in adding to it or adorning it1 to calculate seriously the influence upon its aspect which the work of your own hands has exercised8 ,i do not say that1 even when you regard your city in this scrupulous and testing spirit1 you have not considerable ground for exultation4 ,as far as ,i am acquainted with modern architecture1 ,i am aware of no streets which1 in simplicity and manliness of style1 or general breadth and brightness of effect1 equal those of the ,new ,town of ,edinburgh4 ,but yet ,i am well persuaded that as you traverse those streets1 your feelings of pleasure and pride in them are much complicated with those which are excited entirely by the surrounding scenery4 ,as you walk up or down ,george ,street1 for instance1 do you not look eagerly for every opening to the north and south1 which lets in the luster of the ,firth of ,forth1 or the rugged outline of the ,castle ,rock8 ,take away the sea-waves1 and the dark basalt1 and ,i fear you would find little to interest you in ,george ,street by itself4 ,now ,i remember a city1 more nobly placed even than your ,edinburgh1 which1 instead of the valley that you have now filled by lines of railroad1 has a broad and rushing river of blue water sweeping through the heart of it2 which1 for the dark and solitary rock that bears your castle1 has an amphitheater of cliffs crested with cypresses and olive2 which1 for the two masses of ,arthur's ,seat and the ranges of the ,pentlands1 has a chain of blue mountains higher than the haughtiest peaks of your ,highlands2 and which1 for your far-away ,ben ,ledi and ,ben ,more1 has the great central chain of the ,st4 ,gothard ,alps3 and yet1 as you go out of the gates1 and walk in the suburban streets of that city--,i mean ,verona--the eye never seeks to rest on that external scenery1 however gorgeous2 it does not look for the gaps between the houses1 as you do here2 it may for a few moments follow the broken line of the great ,alpine battlements2 but it is only where they form a background for other battlements1 built by the hand of man4 ,there is no necessity felt to dwell on the blue river or the burning hills4 ,the heart and eye have enough to do in the streets of the city itself2 they are contented there2 nay1 they sometimes turn from the natural scenery1 as if too savage and solitary1 to dwell with a deeper interest on the palace walls that cast their shade upon the streets1 and the crowd of towers that rise out of that shadow into the depth of the sky4 ,illustration3 ,plate ,i4 7,fig4 #a41 ,fig4 #c41 ,fig4 #e47 #b4 ,that is a city to be proud of1 indeed2 and it is this kind of architectural dignity which you should aim at1 in what you add to ,edinburgh or rebuild in it4 ,for remember1 you must either help your scenery or destroy it2 whatever you do has an effect of one kind or the other2 it is never indifferent4 ,but1 above all1 remember that it is chiefly by private1 not by public1 effort that your city must be adorned4 ,it does not matter how many beautiful public buildings you possess1 if they are not supported by1 and in harmony with1 the private houses of the town4 ,neither the mind nor the eye will accept a new college1 or a new hospital1 or a new institution1 for a city4 ,it is the ,canongate1 and the ,princes ,street1 and the ,high ,street that are ,edinburgh4 ,it is in your own private houses that the real majesty of ,edinburgh must consist2 and1 what is more1 it must be by your own personal interest that the style of the architecture which rises around you must be principally guided4 ,do not think that you can have good architecture merely by paying for it4 ,it is not by subscribing liberally for a large building once in forty years that you can call up architects and inspiration4 ,it is only by active and sympathetic attention to the domestic and every-day work which is done for each of you1 that you can educate either yourselves to the feeling1 or your builders to the doing1 of what is truly great4 #c4 ,well1 but1 you will answer1 you cannot feel interested in architecture3 you do not care about it1 and cannot care about it4 ,i know you cannot4 ,about such architecture as is built nowadays1 no mortal ever did or could care4 ,you do not feel interested in hearing the same thing over and over again2--why do you suppose you can feel interested in seeing the same thing over and over again1 were that thing even the best and most beautiful in the world8 ,now1 you all know the kind of window which you usually build in ,edinburgh3 here is an example of the head of one 7fig4 #a71 a massy lintel of a single stone1 laid across from side to side1 with bold square-cut jambs--in fact1 the simplest form it is possible to build4 ,it is by no means a bad form2 on the contrary1 it is very manly and vigorous1 and has a certain dignity in its utter refusal of ornament4 ,but ,i cannot say it is entertaining4 ,how many windows precisely of this form do you suppose there are in the ,new ,town of ,edinburgh8 ,i have not counted them all through the town1 but ,i counted them this morning along this very ,queen ,street1 in which your ,hall is2 and on the one side of that street1 there are of these windows1 absolutely similar to this example1 and altogether devoid of any relief by decoration1 six hundred and seventy-eight4#a ,and your decorations are just as monotonous as your simplicities4 ,how many ,corinthian and ,doric columns do you think there are in your banks1 and post-offices1 institutions1 and ,i know not what else1 one exactly like another8--and yet you expect to be interested6 ,nay1 but1 you will answer me again1 we see sunrises and sunsets1 and violets and roses1 over and over again1 and we do not tire of them4 ,what6 did you ever see one sunrise like another8 does not ,god vary ,his clouds for you every morning and every night8 though1 indeed1 there is enough in the disappearing and appearing of the great orb above the rolling of the world1 to interest all of us1 one would think1 for as many times as we shall see it2 and yet the aspect of it is changed for us daily4 ,you see violets and roses often1 and are not tired of them4 ,true6 but you did not often see two roses alike1 or1 if you did1 you took care not to put them beside each other in the same nosegay1 for fear your nosegay should be uninteresting2 and yet you think you can put #aej1jjj square windows side by side in the same streets1 and still be interested by them4 ,why1 if ,i were to say the same thing over and over again1 for the single hour you are going to let me talk to you1 would you listen to me8 and yet you let your architects do the same thing over and over again for three centuries1 and expect to be interested by their architecture2 with a farther disadvantage on the side of the builder1 as compared with the speaker1 that my wasted words would cost you but little1 but his wasted stones have cost you no small part of your incomes4 ,footnote #a3 ,including ,york ,place1 and ,picardy ,place1 but not counting any window which has moldings4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ii4 7,fig4 #b7 #d4 ,well1 but1 you still think within yourselves1 it is not right that architecture should be interesting4 ,it is a very grand thing1 this architecture1 but essentially unentertaining4 ,it is its duty to be dull1 it is monotonous by law3 it cannot be correct and yet amusing4 ,believe me1 it is not so4 ,all things that are worth doing in art1 are interesting and attractive when they are done4 ,there is no law of right which consecrates dullness4 ,the proof of a thing's being right is1 that it has power over the heart2 that it excites us1 wins us1 or helps us4 ,i do not say that it has influence over all1 but it has over a large class1 one kind of art being fit for one class1 and another for another2 and there is no goodness in art which is independent of the power of pleasing4 ,yet1 do not mistake me2 ,i do not mean that there is no such thing as neglect of the best art1 or delight in the worst1 just as many men neglect nature1 and feed upon what is artificial and base2 but ,i mean1 that all good art has the capacity of pleasing1 if people will attend to it2 that there is no law against its pleasing2 but1 on the contrary1 something wrong either in the spectator or the art1 when it ceases to please4 ,now1 therefore1 if you feel that your present school of architecture is unattractive to you1 ,i say there is something wrong1 either in the architecture or in you2 and ,i trust you will not think ,i mean to flatter you when ,i tell you1 that the wrong is not in you1 but in the architecture4 ,look at this for a moment 7fig4 #b72 it is a window actually existing--a window of an ,english domestic building#b--;a window built six hundred years ago4 ,you will not tell me you have no pleasure in looking at this2 or that you could not1 by any possibility1 become interested in the art which produced it2 or that1 if every window in your streets were of some such form1 with perpetual change in their ornaments1 you would pass up and down the street with as much indifference as now1 when your windows are of this form 7fig4 #a74 ,can you for an instant suppose that the architect was a greater or wiser man who built this1 than he who built that8 or that in the arrangement of these dull and monotonous stones there is more wit and sense than you can penetrate8 ,believe me1 the wrong is not in you2 you would all like the best things best1 if you only saw them4 ,what is wrong in you is your temper1 not your taste2 your patient and trustful temper1 which lives in houses whose architecture it takes for granted1 and subscribes to public edifices from which it derives no enjoyment4 ,footnote #b3 ,oakham ,castle4 ,i have enlarged this illustration from ,mr4 ,hudson ,turner's admirable work on the domestic architecture of ,england4 #e4 ,well1 but what are we to do8 you will say to me2 we cannot make architects of ourselves4 ,pardon me1 you can--and you ought4 ,architecture is an art for all men to learn1 because all are concerned with it2 and it is so simple1 that there is no excuse for not being acquainted with its primary rules1 any more than for ignorance of grammar or of spelling1 which are both of them far more difficult sciences4 ,far less trouble than is necessary to learn how to play chess1 or whist1 or golf1 tolerably1--far less than a school-boy takes to win the meanest prize of the passing year1 would acquaint you with all the main principles of the construction of a ,gothic cathedral1 and ,i believe you would hardly find the study less amusing4 ,but be that as it may1 there are one or two broad principles which need only be stated to be understood and accepted2 and those ,i mean to lay before you1 with your permission1 before you leave this room4 #f4 ,you must all1 of course1 have observed that the principal distinctions between existing styles of architecture depend on their methods of roofing any space1 as a window or door for instance1 or a space between pillars2 that is to say1 that the character of ,greek architecture1 and of all that is derived from it1 depends on its roofing a space with a single stone laid from side to side2 the character of ,roman architecture1 and of all derived from it1 depends on its roofing spaces with round arches2 and the character of ,gothic architecture depends on its roofing spaces with pointed arches1 or gables4 ,i need not1 of course1 in any way follow out for you the mode in which the ,greek system of architecture is derived from the horizontal lintel2 but ,i ought perhaps to explain1 that by ,roman architecture ,i do not mean that spurious condition of temple form which was nothing more than a luscious imitation of the ,greek2 but ,i mean that architecture in which the ,roman spirit truly manifested itself1 the magnificent vaultings of the aqueduct and the bath1 and the colossal heaping of the rough stones in the arches of the amphitheater2 an architecture full of expression of gigantic power and strength of will1 and from which are directly derived all our most impressive early buildings1 called1 as you know1 by various antiquaries1 ,saxon1 ,norman1 or ,romanesque4 ,now the first point ,i wish to insist upon is1 that the ,greek system1 considered merely as a piece of construction1 is weak and barbarous compared with the two others4 ,for instance1 in the case of a large window or door1 such as fig4 #a1 if you have at your disposal a single large and long stone you may indeed roof it in the ,greek manner1 as you have done here1 with comparative security2 but it is always expensive to obtain and to raise to their place stones of this large size1 and in many places nearly impossible to obtain them at all3 and if you have not such stones1 and still insist upon roofing the space in the ,greek way1 that is to say1 upon having a square window1 you must do it by the miserably feeble adjustment of bricks1 fig4 #c4c ,you are well aware1 of course1 that this latter is the usual way in which such windows are now built in ,england2 you are fortunate enough here in the north to be able to obtain single stones1 and this circumstance alone gives a considerable degree of grandeur to your buildings4 ,but in all cases1 and however built1 you cannot but see in a moment that this cross bar is weak and imperfect4 ,it may be strong enough for all immediate intents and purposes1 but it is not so strong as it might be3 however well the house is built1 it will still not stand so long as if it had been better constructed2 and there is hardly a day passes but you may see some rent or flaw in bad buildings of this kind4 ,you may see one whenever you choose1 in one of your most costly1 and most ugly buildings1 the great church with the dome1 at the end of ,george ,street4 ,i think ,i never saw a building with a principal entrance so utterly ghastly and oppressive2 and it is as weak as it is ghastly4 ,the huge horizontal lintel above the door is already split right through4 ,but you are not aware of a thousandth part of the evil3 the pieces of building that you see are all carefully done2 it is in the parts that are to be concealed by paint and plaster that the bad building of the day is thoroughly committed4 ,the main mischief lies in the strange devices that are used to support the long horizontal cross beams of our larger apartments and shops1 and the framework of unseen walls2 girders and ties of cast iron1 and props and wedges1 and laths nailed and bolted together1 on marvelously scientific principles2 so scientific1 that every now and then1 when some tender reparation is undertaken by the unconscious householder1 the whole house crashes into a heap of ruin1 so total1 that the jury which sits on the bodies of the inhabitants cannot tell what has been the matter with it1 and returns a dim verdict of accidental death4 ,footnote #c3 ,plate ,i4 ,on this subject1 see ,the ,builder1 vol4 xi4 p4 #gji4 #g4 ,did you read the account of the proceedings at the ,crystal ,palace at ,sydenham the other day8 ,some dozen of men crushed up among the splinters of the scaffolding in an instant1 nobody knew why4 ,all the engineers declare the scaffolding to have been erected on the best principles1--that the fall of it is as much a mystery as if it had fallen from heaven1 and were all meteoric stones4 ,the jury go to ,sydenham and look at the heap of shattered bolts and girders1 and come back as wise as they went4 ,accidental death6 ,yes1 verily2 the lives of all those dozen of men had been hanging for months at the mercy of a flaw in an inch or two of cast iron4 ,very accidental indeed6 ,not the less pitiable4 ,i grant it not to be an easy thing to raise scaffolding to the height of the ,crystal ,palace without incurring some danger1 but that is no reason why your houses should all be nothing but scaffolding4 ,the common system of support of walls over shops is now nothing but permanent scaffolding2 part of iron1 part of wood1 part of brick2 in its skeleton state awful to behold2 the weight of three or four stories of wall resting sometimes on two or three pillars of the size of gas pipes1 sometimes on a single cross beam of wood1 laid across from party wall to party wall in the ,greek manner4 ,i have a vivid recollection at this moment of a vast heap of splinters in the ,borough ,road1 close to ,st4 ,george's1 ,southwark1 in the road between my own house and ,london4 ,i had passed it the day before1 a goodly shop front1 and sufficient house above1 with a few repairs undertaken in the shop before opening a new business4 ,the master and mistress had found it dusty that afternoon1 and went out to tea4 ,when they came back in the evening1 they found their whole house in the form of a heap of bricks blocking the roadway1 with a party of men digging out their cook4 ,but ,i do not insist on casualties like these1 disgraceful to us as they are1 for it is1 of course1 perfectly possible to build a perfectly secure house or a secure window in the ,greek manner2 but the simple fact is1 that in order to obtain in the cross lintel the same amount of strength which you can obtain in a pointed arch1 you must go to an immensely greater cost in stone or in labor4 ,stonehenge is strong enough1 but it takes some trouble to build in the manner of ,stonehenge3 and ,stonehenge itself is not so strong as an arch of the ,colosseum4 ,you could not raise a circle of four ,stonehenges1 one over the other1 with safety2 and as it is1 more of the cross-stones are fallen upon the plain of ,sarum than arches rent away1 except by the hand of man1 from the mighty circle of ,rome4 ,but ,i waste words2--your own common sense must show you in a moment that this is a weak form2 and there is not at this instant a single street in ,london where some house could not be pointed out with a flaw running through its brickwork1 and repairs rendered necessary in consequence1 merely owing to the adoption of this bad form2 and that our builders know so well1 that in myriads of instances you find them actually throwing concealed arches above the horizontal lintels to take the weight off them2 and the gabled decoration1 at the top of some ,palladian windows1 is merely the ornamental form resulting from a bold device of the old ,roman builders to effect the same purpose4 #h4 ,but there is a farther reason for our adopting the pointed arch than its being the strongest form2 it is also the most beautiful form in which a window or door-head can be built4 ,not the most beautiful because it is the strongest2 but most beautiful1 because its form is one of those which1 as we know by its frequent occurrence in the work of ,nature around us1 has been appointed by the ,deity to be an everlasting source of pleasure to the human mind4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iii4 7,fig4 #d41 ,fig4 #f47 ,gather a branch from any of the trees or flowers to which the earth owes its principal beauty4 ,you will find that every one of its leaves is terminated1 more or less1 in the form of the pointed arch2 and to that form owes its grace and character4 ,i will take1 for instance1 a spray of the tree which so gracefully adorns your ,scottish glens and crags--there is no lovelier in the world--the common ash4 ,here is a sketch of the clusters of leaves which form the extremity of one of its young shoots 7fig4 #d72 and1 by the way1 it will furnish us with an interesting illustration of another error in modern architectural systems4 ,you know how fond modern architects1 like foolish modern politicians1 are of their equalities1 and similarities2 how necessary they think it that each part of a building should be like every other part4 ,now ,nature abhors equality1 and similitude1 just as much as foolish men love them4 ,you will find that the ends of the shoots of the ash are composed of four#d green stalks bearing leaves1 springing in the form of a cross1 if seen from above1 as in fig4 #e1 ,plate ,i41 and at first you will suppose the four arms of the cross are equal4 ,but look more closely1 and you will find that two opposite arms or stalks have only five leaves each1 and the other two have seven2 or else1 two have seven1 and the other two nine2 but always one pair of stalks has two leaves more than the other pair4 ,sometimes the tree gets a little puzzled1 and forgets which is to be the longest stalk1 and begins with a stem for seven leaves where it should have nine1 and then recollects itself at the last minute1 and puts on another leaf in a great hurry1 and so produces a stalk with eight leaves2 but all this care it takes merely to keep itself out of equalities2 and all its grace and power of pleasing are owing to its doing so1 together with the lovely curves in which its stalks1 thus arranged1 spring from the main bough4 ,fig4 #e is a plan of their arrangement merely1 but fig4 #d is the way in which you are most likely to see them3 and observe1 they spring from the stalk precisely as a ,gothic vaulted roof springs1 each stalk representing a rib of the roof1 and the leaves its crossing stones2 and the beauty of each of those leaves is altogether owing to its terminating in the ,gothic form1 the pointed arch4 ,now do you think you would have liked your ash trees as well1 if ,nature had taught them ,greek1 and shown them how to grow according to the received ,attic architectural rules of right8 ,i will try you4 ,here is a cluster of ash leaves1 which ,i have grown expressly for you on ,greek principles 7fig4 #f1 ,plate ,,iii47 ,how do you like it8 ,footnote #d3 ,sometimes of six2 that is to say1 they spring in pairs2 only the two uppermost pairs1 sometimes the three uppermost1 spring so close together as to appear one cluster4 #i4 ,observe1 ,i have played you no trick in this comparison4 ,it is perfectly fair in all respects4 ,i have merely substituted for the beautiful spring of the ,gothic vaulting in the ash bough1 a cross lintel2 and then1 in order to raise the leaves to the same height1 ,i introduce vertical columns2 and ,i make the leaves square-headed instead of pointed1 and their lateral ribs at right angles with the central rib1 instead of sloping from it4 ,i have1 indeed1 only given you two boughs instead of four2 because the perspective of the crossing ones could not have been given without confusing the figure2 but ,i imagine you have quite enough of them as it is4 ,nay1 but1 some of you instantly answer1 if we had been as long accustomed to square-leaved ash trees as we have been to sharp-leaved ash trees1 we should like them just as well4 ,do not think it4 ,are you not much more accustomed to gray whinstone and brown sandstone than you are to rubies or emeralds8 and yet will you tell me you think them as beautiful8 ,are you not more accustomed to the ordinary voices of men than to the perfect accents of sweet singing8 yet do you not instantly declare the song to be loveliest8 ,examine well the channels of your admiration1 and you will find that they are1 in verity1 as unchangeable as the channels of your heart's blood2 that just as by the pressure of a bandage1 or by unwholesome and perpetual action of some part of the body1 that blood may be wasted or arrested1 and in its stagnancy cease to nourish the frame1 or in its disturbed flow affect it with incurable disease1 so also admiration itself may1 by the bandages of fashion1 bound close over the eyes and the arteries of the soul1 be arrested in its natural pulse and healthy flow2 but that wherever the artificial pressure is removed1 it will return into that bed which has been traced for it by the finger of ,god4 #aj4 ,consider this subject well1 and you will find that custom has indeed no real influence upon our feelings of the beautiful1 except in dulling and checking them2 that is to say1 it will and does1 as we advance in years1 deaden in some degree our enjoyment of all beauty1 but it in no wise influences our determination of what is beautiful1 and what is not4 ,you see the broad blue sky every day over your heads2 but you do not for that reason determine blue to be less or more beautiful than you did at first2 you are unaccustomed to see stones as blue as the sapphire1 but you do not for that reason think the sapphire less beautiful than other stones4 ,the blue color is everlastingly appointed by the ,deity to be a source of delight2 and whether seen perpetually over your head1 or crystallized once in a thousand years into a single and incomparable stone1 your acknowledgment of its beauty is equally natural1 simple1 and instantaneous4 ,pardon me for engaging you in a metaphysical discussion2 for it is necessary to the establishment of some of the greatest of all architectural principles that ,i should fully convince you of this great truth1 and that ,i should quite do away with the various objections to it1 which ,i suppose must arise in your minds4 ,of these there is one more which ,i must briefly meet4 ,you know how much confusion has been introduced into the subject of criticism1 by reference to the power of ,association over the human heart2 you know how often it has been said that custom must have something to do with our ideas of beauty1 because it endears so many objects to the affections4 ,but1 once for all1 observe that the powers of association and of beauty are two entirely distinct powers1--as distinct1 for instance1 as the forces of gravitation and electricity4 ,these forces may act together1 or may neutralize one another1 but are not for that reason to be supposed the same force2 and the charm of association will sometimes enhance1 and sometimes entirely overpower1 that of beauty2 but you must not confound the two together4 ,you love many things because you are accustomed to them1 and are pained by many things because they are strange to you2 but that does not make the accustomed sight more beautiful1 or the strange one less so4 ,the well-known object may be dearer to you1 or you may have discovered charms in it which others cannot2 but the charm was there before you discovered it1 only needing time and love to perceive it4 ,you love your friends and relations more than all the world beside1 and may perceive beauties in their faces which others cannot perceive2 but you feel that you would be ridiculous in allowing yourselves to think them the most beautiful persons in the world3 you acknowledge that the real beauty of the human countenance depends on fixed laws of form and expression1 and not on the affection you bear to it1 or the degree in which you are familiarized with it3 and so does the beauty of all other existences4 #aa4 ,now1 therefore1 ,i think that1 without the risk of any farther serious objection occurring to you1 ,i may state what ,i believe to be the truth1--that beauty has been appointed by the ,deity to be one of the elements by which the human soul is continually sustained2 it is therefore to be found more or less in all natural objects1 but in order that we may not satiate ourselves with it1 and weary of it1 it is rarely granted to us in its utmost degrees4 ,when we see it in those utmost degrees1 we are attracted to it strongly1 and remember it long1 as in the case of singularly beautiful scenery or a beautiful countenance4 ,on the other hand1 absolute ugliness is admitted as rarely as perfect beauty2 but degrees of it more or less distinct are associated with whatever has the nature of death and sin1 just as beauty is associated with what has the nature of virtue and of life4 #ab4 ,this being so1 you see that when the relative beauty of any particular forms has to be examined1 we may reason1 from the forms of ,nature around us1 in this manner3--what ,nature does generally1 is sure to be more or less beautiful2 what she does rarely1 will either be very beautiful1 or absolutely ugly4 ,and we may again easily determine1 if we are not willing in such a case to trust our feelings1 which of these is indeed the case1 by this simple rule1 that if the rare occurrence is the result of the complete fulfillment of a natural law1 it will be beautiful2 if of the violation of a natural law1 it will be ugly4 ,for instance1 a sapphire is the result of the complete and perfect fulfillment of the laws of aggregation in the earth of alumina1 and it is therefore beautiful2 more beautiful than clay1 or any other of the conditions of that earth4 ,but a square leaf on any tree would be ugly1 being a violation of the laws of growth in trees1#e and we ought to feel it so4 ,footnote #e3 ,i am at present aware only of one tree1 the tulip tree1 which has an exceptional form1 and which1 ,i doubt not1 every one will admit1 loses much beauty in consequence4 ,all other leaves1 as far as ,i know1 have the round or pointed arch in the form of the extremities of their foils4 #ac4 ,now then1 ,i proceed to argue in this manner from what we see in the woods and fields around us2 that as they are evidently meant for our delight1 and as we always feel them to be beautiful1 we may assume that the forms into which their leaves are cast1 are indeed types of beauty1 not of extreme or perfect1 but average beauty4 ,and finding that they invariably terminate more or less in pointed arches1 and are not square-headed1 ,i assert the pointed arch to be one of the forms most fitted for perpetual contemplation by the human mind2 that it is one of those which never weary1 however often repeated2 and that therefore1 being both the strongest in structure1 and a beautiful form 7while the square head is both weak in structure1 and an ugly form71 we are unwise ever to build in any other4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iv4 7,fig4 #g47 #ad4 ,here1 however1 ,i must anticipate another objection4 ,it may be asked why we are to build only the tops of the windows pointed1--why not follow the leaves1 and point them at the bottom also8 ,for this simple reason1 that1 while in architecture you are continually called upon to do what may be unnecessary for the sake of beauty1 you are never called upon to do what is inconvenient for the sake of beauty4 ,you want the level window sill to lean upon1 or to allow the window to open on a balcony3 the eye and the common sense of the beholder require this necessity to be met before any laws of beauty are thought of4 ,and besides this1 there is in the sill no necessity for the pointed arch as a bearing form2 on the contrary1 it would give an idea of weak support for the sides of the window1 and therefore is at once rejected4 ,only ,i beg of you particularly to observe that the level sill1 although useful1 and therefore admitted1 does not therefore become beautiful2 the eye does not like it so well as the top of the window1 nor does the sculptor like to attract the eye to it2 his richest moldings1 traceries1 and sculptures are all reserved for the top of the window2 they are sparingly granted to its horizontal base4 ,and farther1 observe1 that when neither the convenience of the sill1 nor the support of the structure1 are any more of moment1 as in small windows and traceries1 you instantly have the point given to the bottom of the window4 ,do you recollect the west window of your own ,dunblane ,abbey8 ,if you look in any common guide-book1 you will find it pointed out as peculiarly beautiful1--it is acknowledged to be beautiful by the most careless observer4 ,and why beautiful8 ,look at it 7fig4 #g74 ,simply because in its great contours it has the form of a forest leaf1 and because in its decoration it has used nothing but forest leaves4 ,the sharp and expressive molding which surrounds it is a very interesting example of one used to an enormous extent by the builders of the early ,english ,gothic1 usually in the form seen in fig4 #b1 ,plate ,,ii41 composed of clusters of four sharp leaves each1 originally produced by sculpturing the sides of a four-sided pyramid1 and afterwards brought more or less into a true image of leaves1 but deriving all its beauty from the botanical form4 ,in the present instance only two leaves are set in each cluster2 and the architect has been determined that the naturalism should be perfect4 ,for he was no common man who designed that cathedral of ,dunblane4 ,i know not anything so perfect in its simplicity1 and so beautiful1 as far as it reaches1 in all the ,gothic with which ,i am acquainted4 ,and just in proportion to his power of mind1 that man was content to work under ,nature's teaching2 and instead of putting a merely formal dogtooth1 as everybody else did at the time1 he went down to the woody bank of the sweet river beneath the rocks on which he was building1 and he took up a few of the fallen leaves that lay by it1 and he set them in his arch1 side by side1 forever4 ,and1 look--that he might show you he had done this1--he has made them all of different sizes1 just as they lay2 and that you might not by any chance miss noticing the variety1 he has put a great broad one at the top1 and then a little one turned the wrong way1 next to it1 so that you must be blind indeed if you do not understand his meaning4 ,and the healthy change and playfulness of this just does in the stone-work what it does on the tree boughs1 and is a perpetual refreshment and invigoration2 so that1 however long you gaze at this simple ornament--and none can be simpler1 a village mason could carve it all round the window in a few hours--you are never weary of it1 it seems always new4 #ae4 ,it is true that oval windows of this form are comparatively rare in ,gothic work1 but1 as you well know1 circular or wheel windows are used constantly1 and in most traceries the apertures are curved and pointed as much at the bottom as the top4 ,so that ,i believe you will now allow me to proceed upon the assumption1 that the pointed arch is indeed the best form into which the head either of door or window can be thrown1 considered as a means of sustaining weight above it4 ,how these pointed arches ought to be grouped and decorated1 ,i shall endeavor to show you in my next lecture4 ,meantime ,i must beg of you to consider farther some of the general points connected with the structure of the roof4 #af4 ,i am sure that all of you must readily acknowledge the charm which is imparted to any landscape by the presence of cottages2 and you must over and over again have paused at the wicket gate of some cottage garden1 delighted by the simple beauty of the honeysuckle porch and latticed window4 ,has it ever occurred to you to ask the question1 what effect the cottage would have upon your feelings if it had no roof8 no visible roof1 ,i mean2--if instead of the thatched slope1 in which the little upper windows are buried deep1 as in a nest of straw--or the rough shelter of its mountain shales--or warm coloring of russet tiles--there were nothing but a flat leaden top to it1 making it look like a large packing-case with windows in it8 ,i don't think the rarity of such a sight would make you feel it to be beautiful2 on the contrary1 if you think over the matter1 you will find that you actually do owe1 and ought to owe1 a great part of your pleasure in all cottage scenery1 and in all the inexhaustible imagery of literature which is founded upon it1 to the conspicuousness of the cottage roof--to the subordination of the cottage itself to its covering1 which leaves1 in nine cases out of ten1 really more roof than anything else4 ,it is1 indeed1 not so much the whitewashed walls--nor the flowery garden--nor the rude fragments of stones set for steps at the door--nor any other picturesqueness of the building which interest you1 so much as the gray bank of its heavy eaves1 deep-cushioned with green moss and golden stone-crop4 ,and there is a profound1 yet evident1 reason for this feeling4 ,the very soul of the cottage--the essence and meaning of it--are in its roof2 it is that1 mainly1 wherein consists its shelter2 that1 wherein it differs most completely from a cleft in rocks or bower in woods4 ,it is in its thick impenetrable coverlet of close thatch that its whole heart and hospitality are concentrated4 ,consider the difference1 in sound1 of the expressions beneath my roof and within my walls1--consider whether you would be best sheltered1 in a shed1 with a stout roof sustained on corner posts1 or in an inclosure of four walls without a roof at all1--and you will quickly see how important a part of the cottage the roof must always be to the mind as well as to the eye1 and how1 from seeing it1 the greatest part of our pleasure must continually arise4 #ag4 ,now1 do you suppose that which is so all-important in a cottage1 can be of small importance in your own dwelling-house8 ,do you think that by any splendor of architecture--any height of stories--you can atone to the mind for the loss of the aspect of the roof8 ,it is vain to say you take the roof for granted4 ,you may as well say you take a man's kindness for granted1 though he neither looks nor speaks kindly4 ,you may know him to be kind in reality1 but you will not like him so well as if he spoke and looked kindly also4 ,and whatever external splendor you may give your houses1 you will always feel there is something wanting1 unless you see their roofs plainly4 ,and this especially in the north4 ,in southern architecture the roof is of far less importance2 but here the soul of domestic building is in the largeness and conspicuousness of the protection against the ponderous snow and driving sleet4 ,you may make the facade of the square pile1 if the roof be not seen1 as handsome as you please1--you may cover it with decoration1--but there will always be a heartlessness about it1 which you will not know how to conquer2 above all1 a perpetual difficulty in finishing the wall at top1 which will require all kinds of strange inventions in parapets and pinnacles for its decoration1 and yet will never look right4 ,now1 ,i need not tell you that1 as it is desirable1 for the sake of the effect upon the mind1 that the roof should be visible1 so the best and most natural form of roof in the north is that which will render it most visible1 namely1 the steep gable3 the best and most natural1 ,i say1 because this form not only throws off snow and rain most completely1 and dries fastest1 but obtains the greatest interior space within walls of a given height1 removes the heat of the sun most effectually from the upper rooms1 and affords most space for ventilation4 #ah4 ,you have then1 observed1 two great principles1 as far as northern architecture is concerned2 first1 that the pointed arch is to be the means by which the weight of the wall or roof is to be sustained2 secondly1 that the steep gable is the form most proper for the roof itself4 ,and now observe this most interesting fact1 that all the loveliest ,gothic architecture in the world is based on the group of lines composed of the pointed arch and the gable4 ,if you look at the beautiful apse of ,amiens ,cathedral--a work justly celebrated over all ,europe--you will find it formed merely of a series of windows surmounted by pure gables of open work4 ,if you look at the transept porches of ,rouen1 or at the great and celebrated porch of the ,cathedral of ,rheims1 or that of ,strasbourg1 ,bayeux1 ,amiens1 or ,peterborough1 still you will see that these lovely compositions are nothing more than richly decorated forms of gable over pointed arch4 ,but more than this1 you must be all well aware how fond our best architectural artists are of the street effects of foreign cities2 and even those now present who have not personally visited any of the continental towns must remember1 ,i should think1 some of the many interesting drawings by ,mr4 ,prout1 ,mr4 ,nash1 and other excellent draughtsmen1 which have for many years adorned our exhibitions4 ,now1 the principal charm of all those continental street effects is dependent on the houses having high-pitched gable roofs4 ,in the ,netherlands1 and ,northern ,france1 where the material for building is brick or stone1 the fronts of the stone gables are raised above the roofs1 and you have magnificent and grotesque ranges of steps or curves decorated with various ornaments1 succeeding one another in endless perspective along the streets of ,antwerp1 ,ghent1 or ,brussels4 ,in ,picardy and ,normandy1 again1 and many towns of ,germany1 where the material for building is principally wood1 the roof is made to project over the gables1 fringed with a beautifully carved cornice1 and casting a broad shadow down the house front4 ,this is principally seen at ,abbeville1 ,rouen1 ,lisieux1 and others of the older towns of ,france4 ,but1 in all cases1 the effect of the whole street depends on the prominence of the gables2 not only of the fronts towards the streets1 but of the sides also1 set with small garret or dormer windows1 each of the most fantastic and beautiful form1 and crowned with a little spire or pinnacle4 ,wherever there is a little winding stair1 or projecting bow window1 or any other irregularity of form1 the steep ridges shoot into turrets and small spires1 as in fig4 #h1f each in its turn crowned by a fantastic ornament1 covered with curiously shaped slates or shingles1 or crested with long fringes of rich ironwork1 so that1 seen from above and from a distance1 the intricate grouping of the roofs of a ,french city is no less interesting than its actual streets2 and in the streets themselves1 the masses of broad shadow which the roofs form against the sky1 are a most important background to the bright and sculptured surfaces of the walls4 ,footnote #f3 ,this figure is copied from ,prout4 #ai4 ,finally1 ,i need not remind you of the effect upon the northern mind which has always been produced by the heaven-pointing spire1 nor of the theory which has been founded upon it of the general meaning of ,gothic architecture as expressive of religious aspiration4 ,in a few minutes1 you may ascertain the exact value of that theory1 and the degree in which it is true4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,v4 7,fig4 #h47 ,the first tower of which we hear as built upon the earth1 was certainly built in a species of aspiration2 but ,i do not suppose that any one here will think it was a religious one4 ,go to now4 ,let us build a tower whose top may reach unto heaven4 ,from that day to this1 whenever men have become skillful architects at all1 there has been a tendency in them to build high2 not in any religious feeling1 but in mere exuberance of spirit and power--as they dance or sing--with a certain mingling of vanity--like the feeling in which a child builds a tower of cards2 and1 in nobler instances1 with also a strong sense of1 and delight in the majesty1 height1 and strength of the building itself1 such as we have in that of a lofty tree or a peaked mountain4 ,add to this instinct the frequent necessity of points of elevation for watch-towers1 or of points of offense1 as in towers built on the ramparts of cities1 and1 finally1 the need of elevations for the transmission of sound1 as in the ,turkish minaret and ,christian belfry1 and you have1 ,i think1 a sufficient explanation of the tower-building of the world in general4 ,look through your ,bibles only1 and collect the various expressions with reference to tower-building there1 and you will have a very complete idea of the spirit in which it is for the most part undertaken4 ,you begin with that of ,babel2 then you remember ,gideon beating down the tower of ,penuel1 in order more completely to humble the pride of the men of the city2 you remember the defense of the tower of ,shechem against ,abimelech1 and the death of ,abimelech by the casting of a stone from it by a woman's hand2 you recollect the husbandman building a tower in his vineyard1 and the beautiful expressions in ,solomon's song1--,the tower of ,lebanon1 which looketh towards ,damascus2 ,i am a wall1 and my breasts like towers2--you recollect the ,psalmist's expressions of love and delight1 ,go ye round about ,jerusalem2 tell the towers thereof3 mark ye well her bulwarks2 consider her palaces1 that ye may tell it to the generation following4 ,you see in all these cases how completely the tower is a subject of human pride1 or delight1 or defense1 not in any wise associated with religious sentiment2 the towers of ,jerusalem being named in the same sentence1 not with her temple1 but with her bulwarks and palaces4 ,and thus1 when the tower is in reality connected with a place of worship1 it was generally done to add to its magnificence1 but not to add to its religious expression4 ,and over the whole of the world1 you have various species of elevated buildings1 the ,egyptian pyramid1 the ,indian and ,chinese pagoda1 the ,turkish minaret1 and the ,christian belfry1--all of them raised either to make a show from a distance1 or to cry from1 or swing bells in1 or hang them round1 or for some other very human reason4 ,thus1 when the good people of ,beauvais were building their cathedral1 that of ,amiens1 then just completed1 had excited the admiration of all ,france2 and the people of ,beauvais1 in their jealousy and determination to beat the people of ,amiens1 set to work to build a tower to their own cathedral as high as they possibly could4 ,they built it so high that it tumbled down1 and they were never able to finish their cathedral at all--it stands a wreck to this day4 ,but you will not1 ,i should think1 imagine this to have been done in heavenward aspiration4 ,mind1 however1 ,i don't blame the people of ,beauvais1 except for their bad building4 ,i think their desire to beat the citizens of ,amiens a most amiable weakness1 and only wish ,i could see the citizens of ,edinburgh and ,glasgow inflamed with the same emulation1 building ,gothic towers#g instead of manufactory chimneys4 ,only do not confound a feeling which1 though healthy and right1 may be nearly analogous to that in which you play a cricket-match1 with any feeling allied to your hope of heaven4 ,footnote #g3 ,i did not1 at the time of the delivery of these lectures1 know how many ,gothic towers the worthy ,glaswegians have lately built3 that of ,st4 ,peter's1 in particular1 being a most meritorious effort4 #bj4 ,such being the state of the case with respect to tower-building in general1 let me follow for a few minutes the changes which occur in the towers of northern and southern architects4 ,many of us are familiar with the ordinary form of the ,italian bell-tower or campanile4 ,from the eighth century to the thirteenth there was little change in that form3#h four-square1 rising high and without tapering into the air1 story above story1 they stood like giants in the quiet fields beside the piles of the basilica or the ,lombardic church1 in this form 7fig4 #i71 tiled at the top in a flat gable1 with open arches below1 and fewer and fewer arches on each inferior story1 down to the bottom4 ,it is worth while noting the difference in form between these and the towers built for military service4 ,the latter were built as in fig4 #aj1 projecting vigorously at the top over a series of brackets or machicolations1 with very small windows1 and no decoration below4 ,such towers as these were attached to every important palace in the cities of ,italy1 and stood in great circles--troops of towers--around their external walls3 their ruins still frown along the crests of every promontory of the ,apennines1 and are seen from far away in the great ,lombardic plain1 from distances of half-a-day's journey1 dark against the amber sky of the horizon4 ,these are of course now built no more1 the changed methods of modern warfare having cast them into entire disuse2 but the belfry or campanile has had a very different influence on ,european architecture4 ,its form in the plains of ,italy and ,south ,france being that just shown you1 the moment we enter the valleys of the ,alps1 where there is snow to be sustained1 we find its form of roof altered by the substitution of a steep gable for a flat one4#i ,there are probably few in the room who have not been in some parts of ,south ,switzerland1 and who do not remember the beautiful effect of the gray mountain churches1 many of them hardly changed since the tenth and eleventh centuries1 whose pointed towers stand up through the green level of the vines1 or crown the jutting rocks that border the valley4 ,footnote #h3 ,there is a good abstract of the forms of the ,italian campanile1 by ,mr4 ,papworth1 in the ,journal of the ,archaeological ,institute1 ,march #ahej4 ,footnote #i3 ,the form establishes itself afterwards in the plains1 in sympathy with other ,gothic conditions1 as in the campanile of ,st4 ,mark's at ,venice4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vi4 7,fig4 #aj41 ,fig4 #i47 #ba4 ,from this form to the true spire the change is slight1 and consists in little more than various decoration2 generally in putting small pinnacles at the angles1 and piercing the central pyramid with traceried windows2 sometimes1 as at ,fribourg and ,burgos1 throwing it into tracery altogether3 but to do this is invariably the sign of a vicious style1 as it takes away from the spire its character of a true roof1 and turns it nearly into an ornamental excrescence4 ,at ,antwerp and ,brussels1 the celebrated towers 7one1 observe1 ecclesiastical1 being the tower of the cathedral1 and the other secular71 are formed by successions of diminishing towers1 set one above the other1 and each supported by buttresses thrown to the angles of the one beneath4 ,at the ,english cathedrals of ,lichfield and ,salisbury1 the spire is seen in great purity1 only decorated by sculpture2 but ,i am aware of no example so striking in its entire simplicity as that of the towers of the cathedral of ,coutances in ,normandy4 ,there is a dispute between ,french and ,english antiquaries as to the date of the building1 the ,english being unwilling to admit its complete priority to all their own ,gothic4 ,i have no doubt of this priority myself2 and ,i hope that the time will soon come when men will cease to confound vanity with patriotism1 and will think the honor of their nation more advanced by their own sincerity and courtesy1 than by claims1 however learnedly contested1 to the invention of pinnacles and arches4 ,i believe the ,french nation was1 in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries1 the greatest in the world2 and that the ,french not only invented ,gothic architecture1 but carried it to a perfection which no other nation has approached1 then or since3 but1 however this may be1 there can be no doubt that the towers of ,coutances1 if not the earliest1 are among the very earliest1 examples of the fully developed spire4 ,i have drawn one of them carefully for you 7fig4 #aa71 and you will see immediately that they are literally domestic roofs1 with garret windows1 executed on a large scale1 and in stone4 ,their only ornament is a kind of scaly mail1 which is nothing more than the copying in stone of the common wooden shingles of the house-roof2 and their security is provided for by strong gabled dormer windows1 of massy masonry1 which1 though supported on detached shafts1 have weight enough completely to balance the lateral thrusts of the spires4 ,nothing can surpass the boldness or the simplicity of the plan2 and yet1 in spite of this simplicity1 the clear detaching of the shafts from the slope of the spire1 and their great height1 strengthened by rude cross-bars of stone1 carried back to the wall behind1 occasion so great a complexity and play of cast shadows1 that ,i remember no architectural composition of which the aspect is so completely varied at different hours of the day4#aj ,but the main thing ,i wish you to observe is1 the complete domesticity of the work2 the evident treatment of the church spire merely as a magnified house-roof2 and the proof herein of the great truth of which ,i have been endeavoring to persuade you1 that all good architecture rises out of good and simple domestic work2 and that1 therefore1 before you attempt to build great churches and palaces1 you must build good house doors and garret windows4 ,footnote #aj3 ,the sketch was made about ten o'clock on a ,september morning4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vii4 7,fig4 #aa41 ,fig4 #ab47 #bb4 ,nor is the spire the only ecclesiastical form deducible from domestic architecture4 ,the spires of ,france and ,germany are associated with other towers1 even simpler and more straightforward in confession of their nature1 in which1 though the walls of the tower are covered with sculpture1 there is an ordinary ridged gable roof on the top4 ,the finest example ,i know of this kind of tower1 is that on the north-west angle of ,rouen ,cathedral 7fig4 #ab72 but they occur in multitudes in the older towns of ,germany2 and the backgrounds of ,albert ,duerer are full of them1 and owe to them a great part of their interest3 all these great and magnificent masses of architecture being repeated on a smaller scale by the little turret roofs and pinnacles of every house in the town2 and the whole system of them being expressive1 not by any means of religious feeling1#aa but merely of joyfulness and exhilaration of spirit in the inhabitants of such cities1 leading them to throw their roofs high into the sky1 and therefore giving to the style of architecture with which these grotesque roofs are associated1 a certain charm like that of cheerfulness in a human face2 besides a power of interesting the beholder which is testified1 not only by the artist in his constant search after such forms as the elements of his landscape1 but by every phrase of our language and literature bearing on such topics4 ,have not these words1 ,pinnacle1 ,turret1 ,belfry1 ,spire1 ,tower1 a pleasant sound in all your ears8 ,i do not speak of your scenery1 ,i do not ask you how much you feel that it owes to the gray battlements that frown through the woods of ,craigmillar1 to the pointed turrets that flank the front of ,holyrood1 or to the massy keeps of your ,crichtoun and ,borthwick and other border towers4 ,but look merely through your poetry and romances2 take away out of your border ballads the word tower wherever it occurs1 and the ideas connected with it1 and what will become of the ballads8 ,see how ,sir ,walter ,scott cannot even get through a description of ,highland scenery without help from the idea3-- ,each purple peak1 each flinty spire1 ,was bathed in floods of living fire4 ,take away from ,scott's romances the word and idea turret1 and see how much you would lose4 ,suppose1 for instance1 when young ,osbaldistone is leaving ,osbaldistone ,hall1 instead of saying ,the old clock struck two from a turret adjoining my bedchamber1 he had said1 ,the old clock struck two from the landing at the top of the stair1 what would become of the passage8 ,and can you really suppose that what has so much power over you in words has no power over you in reality8 ,do you think there is any group of words which would thus interest you1 when the things expressed by them are uninteresting8 ,footnote #aa3 ,among the various modes in which the architects1 against whose practice my writings are directed1 have endeavored to oppose them1 no charge has been made more frequently than that of their self-contradiction2 the fact being1 that there are few people in the world who are capable of seeing the two sides of any subject1 or of conceiving how the statements of its opposite aspects can possibly be reconcilable4 ,for instance1 in a recent review1 though for the most part both fair and intelligent1 it is remarked1 on this very subject of the domestic origin of the northern ,gothic1 that ,mr4 ,ruskin is evidently possessed by a fixed idea1 that the ,venetian architects were devout men1 and that their devotion was expressed in their buildings2 while he will not allow our own cathedrals to have been built by any but worldly men1 who had no thoughts of heaven1 but only vague ideas of keeping out of hell1 by erecting costly places of worship4 ,if this writer had compared the two passages with the care which such a subject necessarily demands1 he would have found that ,i was not opposing ,venetian to ,english piety2 but that in the one case ,i was speaking of the spirit manifested in the entire architecture of the nation1 and in the other of occasional efforts of superstition as distinguished from that spirit2 and1 farther1 that in the one case1 ,i was speaking of decorative features1 which are ordinarily the results of feelings1 in the other of structural features1 which are ordinarily the results of necessity or convenience4 ,thus it is rational and just that we should attribute the decoration of the arches of ,st4 ,mark's with scriptural mosaics to a religious sentiment2 but it would be a strange absurdity to regard as an effort of piety the invention of the form of the arch itself1 of which one of the earliest and most perfect instances is in the ,cloaca ,maxima4 ,and thus in the case of spires and towers1 it is just to ascribe to the devotion of their designers that dignity which was bestowed upon forms derived from the simplest domestic buildings2 but it is ridiculous to attribute any great refinement of religious feeling1 or height of religious aspiration1 to those who furnished the funds for the erection of the loveliest tower in ,north ,france1 by paying for permission to eat butter in ,lent4 #bc4 ,for instance1 you know that1 for an immense time back1 all your public buildings have been built with a row of pillars supporting a triangular thing called a pediment4 ,you see this form every day in your banks and clubhouses1 and churches and chapels2 you are told that it is the perfection of architectural beauty2 and yet suppose ,sir ,walter ,scott1 instead of writing1 ,each purple peak1 each flinty spire1 had written1 ,each purple peak1 each flinty 'pediment4'#ab ,would you have thought the poem improved8 ,and if not1 why would it be spoiled8 ,simply because the idea is no longer of any value to you2 the thing spoken of is a nonentity4 ,these pediments1 and stylobates1 and architraves never excited a single pleasurable feeling in you--never will1 to the end of time4 ,they are evermore dead1 lifeless1 and useless1 in art as in poetry1 and though you built as many of them as there are slates on your house-roofs1 you will never care for them4 ,they will only remain to later ages as monuments of the patience and pliability with which the people of the nineteenth century sacrificed their feelings to fashions1 and their intellects to forms4 ,but on the other hand1 that strange and thrilling interest with which such words strike you as are in any wise connected with ,gothic architecture--as for instance1 ,vault1 ,arch1 ,spire1 ,pinnacle1 ,battlement1 ,barbican1 ,porch1 and myriads of such others1 words everlastingly poetical and powerful whenever they occur1--is a most true and certain index that the things themselves are delightful to you1 and will ever continue to be so4 ,believe me1 you do indeed love these things1 so far as you care about art at all1 so far as you are not ashamed to confess what you feel about them4 ,footnote #ab3 ,it has been objected to this comparison that the form of the pediment does not properly represent that of the rocks of the ,trossachs4 ,the objection is utterly futile1 for there is not a single spire or pinnacle from one end of the ,trossachs to the other4 ,all their rocks are heavily rounded1 and the introduction of the word spire is a piece of inaccuracy in description1 ventured merely for the sake of the ,gothic image4 ,farther3 it has been said that if ,i had substituted the word gable1 it would have spoiled the line just as much as the word pediment1 though gable is a ,gothic word4 ,of course it would2 but why8 ,because gable is a term of vulgar domestic architecture1 and therefore destructive of the tone of the heroic description2 whereas pediment and spire are precisely correlative terms1 being each the crowning feature in ecclesiastical edifices1 and the comparison of their effects in the verse is therefore absolutely accurate1 logical1 and just4 #bd4 ,in your public capacities1 as bank directors1 and charity overseers1 and administrators of this and that other undertaking or institution1 you cannot express your feelings at all4 ,you form committees to decide upon the style of the new building1 and as you have never been in the habit of trusting to your own taste in such matters1 you inquire who is the most celebrated1 that is to say1 the most employed1 architect of the day4 ,and you send for the great ,mr4 ,blank1 and the ,great ,blank sends you a plan of a great long marble box with half-a-dozen pillars at one end of it1 and the same at the other2 and you look at the ,great ,blank's great plan in a grave manner1 and you dare say it will be very handsome2 and you ask the ,great ,blank what sort of a blank check must be filled up before the great plan can be realized2 and you subscribe in a generous burst of confidence whatever is wanted2 and when it is all done1 and the great white marble box is set up in your streets1 you contemplate it1 not knowing what to make of it exactly1 but hoping it is all right2 and then there is a dinner given to the ,great ,blank1 and the morning papers say that the new and handsome building1 erected by the great ,mr4 ,blank1 is one of ,mr4 ,blank's happiest efforts1 and reflects the greatest credit upon the intelligent inhabitants of the city of so-and-so2 and the building keeps the rain out as well as another1 and you remain in a placid state of impoverished satisfaction therewith2 but as for having any real pleasure out of it1 you never hoped for such a thing4 ,if you really make up a party of pleasure1 and get rid of the forms and fashion of public propriety for an hour or two1 where do you go for it8 ,where do you go to eat strawberries and cream8 ,to ,roslin ,chapel1 ,i believe2 not to the portico of the last-built institution4 ,what do you see your children doing1 obeying their own natural and true instincts8 ,what are your daughters drawing upon their cardboard screens as soon as they can use a pencil8 ,not ,parthenon fronts1 ,i think1 but the ruins of ,melrose ,abbey1 or ,linlithgow ,palace1 or ,lochleven ,castle1 their own pure ,scotch hearts leading them straight to the right things1 in spite of all that they are told to the contrary4 ,you perhaps call this romantic1 and youthful1 and foolish4 ,i am pressed for time now1 and ,i cannot ask you to consider the meaning of the word ,romance4 ,i will do that1 if you please1 in next lecture1 for it is a word of greater weight and authority than we commonly believe4 ,in the meantime1 ,i will endeavor1 lastly1 to show you1 not the romantic1 but the plain and practical conclusions which should follow from the facts ,i have laid before you4 #be4 ,i have endeavored briefly to point out to you the propriety and naturalness of the two great ,gothic forms1 the pointed arch and gable roof4 ,i wish now to tell you in what way they ought to be introduced into modern domestic architecture4 ,you will all admit that there is neither romance nor comfort in waiting at your own or at any one else's door on a windy and rainy day1 till the servant comes from the end of the house to open it4 ,you all know the critical nature of that opening--the drift of wind into the passage1 the impossibility of putting down the umbrella at the proper moment without getting a cupful of water dropped down the back of your neck from the top of the door-way2 and you know how little these inconveniences are abated by the common ,greek portico at the top of the steps4 ,you know how the east winds blow through those unlucky couples of pillars1 which are all that your architects find consistent with due observance of the ,doric order4 ,then1 away with these absurdities2 and the next house you build1 insist upon having the pure old ,gothic porch1 walled in on both sides1 with its pointed arch entrance and gable roof above4 ,under that1 you can put down your umbrella at your leisure1 and1 if you will1 stop a moment to talk with your friend as you give him the parting shake of the hand4 ,and if now and then a wayfarer found a moment's rest on a stone seat on each side of it1 ,i believe you would find the insides of your houses not one whit the less comfortable2 and1 if you answer me1 that were such refuges built in the open streets1 they would become mere nests of filthy vagrants1 ,i reply that ,i do not despair of such a change in the administration of the poor laws of this country1 as shall no longer leave any of our fellow creatures in a state in which they would pollute the steps of our houses by resting upon them for a night4 ,but if not1 the command to all of us is strict and straight1 ,when thou seest the naked1 that thou cover him1 and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house4#ac ,not to the work-house1 observe1 but to thy house3 and ,i say it would be better a thousandfold1 that our doors should be beset by the poor day by day1 than that it should be written of any one of us1 ,they reap every one his corn in the field1 and they gather the vintage of the wicked4 ,they cause the naked to lodge without shelter1 that they have no covering in the cold4 ,they are wet with the showers of the mountains1 and embrace the rock1 for want of a shelter4#ad ,footnote #ac3 ,isa4 lviii4 #g4 ,footnote #ad3 ,job xxiv4 #f-h4 #bf4 ,this1 then1 is the first use to which your pointed arches and gable roofs are to be put4 ,the second is of more personal pleasurableness4 ,you surely must all of you feel and admit the delightfulness of a bow window2 ,i can hardly fancy a room can be perfect without one4 ,now you have nothing to do but to resolve that every one of your principal rooms shall have a bow window1 either large or small4 ,sustain the projection of it on a bracket1 crown it above with a little peaked roof1 and give a massy piece of stone sculpture to the pointed arch in each of its casements1 and you will have as inexhaustible a source of quaint richness in your street architecture1 as of additional comfort and delight in the interiors of your rooms4 #bg4 ,thirdly1 as respects windows which do not project4 ,you will find that the proposal to build them with pointed arches is met by an objection on the part of your architects1 that you cannot fit them with comfortable sashes4 ,i beg leave to tell you that such an objection is utterly futile and ridiculous4 ,i have lived for months in ,gothic palaces1 with pointed windows of the most complicated forms1 fitted with modern sashes2 and with the most perfect comfort4 ,but granting that the objection were a true one--and ,i suppose it is true to just this extent1 that it may cost some few shillings more per window in the first instance to set the fittings to a pointed arch than to a square one--there is not the smallest necessity for the aperture of the window being of the pointed shape4 ,make the uppermost or bearing arch pointed only1 and make the top of the window square1 filling the interval with a stone shield1 and you may have a perfect school of architecture1 not only consistent with1 but eminently conducive to1 every comfort of your daily life4 ,the window in ,oakham ,castle 7fig4 #b7 is an example of such a form as actually employed in the thirteenth century2 and ,i shall have to notice another in the course of next lecture4 #bh4 ,meanwhile1 ,i have but one word to say1 in conclusion4 ,whatever has been advanced in the course of this evening1 has rested on the assumption that all architecture was to be of brick and stone2 and may meet with some hesitation in its acceptance1 on account of the probable use of iron1 glass1 and such other materials in our future edifices4 ,i cannot now enter into any statement of the possible uses of iron or glass1 but ,i will give you one reason1 which ,i think will weigh strongly with most here1 why it is not likely that they will ever become important elements in architectural effect4 ,i know that ,i am speaking to a company of philosophers1 but you are not philosophers of the kind who suppose that the ,bible is a superannuated book2 neither are you of those who think the ,bible is dishonored by being referred to for judgment in small matters4 ,the very divinity of the ,book seems to me1 on the contrary1 to justify us in referring every thing to it1 with respect to which any conclusion can be gathered from its pages4 ,assuming then that the ,bible is neither superannuated now1 nor ever likely to be so1 it will follow that the illustrations which the ,bible employs are likely to be clear and intelligible illustrations to the end of time4 ,i do not mean that everything spoken of in the ,bible histories must continue to endure for all time1 but that the things which the ,bible uses for illustration of eternal truths are likely to remain eternally intelligible illustrations4 ,now1 ,i find that iron architecture is indeed spoken of in the ,bible4 ,you know how it is said to ,jeremiah1 ,behold1 ,i have made thee this day a defensed city1 and an iron pillar1 and brazen walls1 against the whole land4 ,but ,i do not find that iron building is ever alluded to as likely to become familiar to the minds of men2 but1 on the contrary1 that an architecture of carved stone is continually employed as a source of the most important illustrations4 ,a simple instance must occur to all of you at once4 ,the force of the image of the ,corner ,stone1 as used throughout ,scripture1 would completely be lost1 if the ,christian and civilized world were ever extensively to employ any other material than earth and rock in their domestic buildings3 ,i firmly believe that they never will2 but that as the laws of beauty are more perfectly established1 we shall be content still to build as our forefathers built1 and still to receive the same great lessons which such building is calculated to convey2 of which one is indeed never to be forgotten4 ,among the questions respecting towers which were laid before you to-night1 one has been omitted3 ,what man is there of you intending to build a tower1 that sitteth not down first and counteth the cost1 whether he have sufficient to finish it8 ,i have pressed upon you1 this evening1 the building of domestic towers4 ,you may think it right to dismiss the subject at once from your thoughts2 but let us not do so1 without considering1 each of us1 how far that tower has been built1 and how truly its cost has been counted4 ,,lecture ,,ii4 ,,architecture4 ,delivered ,november #d1 #ahec4 #bi4 ,before proceeding to the principal subject of this evening1 ,i wish to anticipate one or two objections which may arise in your minds to what ,i must lay before you4 ,it may perhaps have been felt by you last evening1 that some things ,i proposed to you were either romantic or ,utopian4 ,let us think for a few moments what romance and ,utopianism mean4 ,first1 romance4 ,in consequence of the many absurd fictions which long formed the elements of romance writing1 the word romance is sometimes taken as synonymous with falsehood4 ,thus the ,french talk of ,des ,romans1 and thus the ,english use the word ,romancing4 ,but in this sense we had much better use the word falsehood at once4 ,it is far plainer and clearer4 ,and if in this sense ,i put anything romantic before you1 pray pay no attention to it1 or to me4 #cj4 ,in the second place4 ,because young people are particularly apt to indulge in reverie1 and imaginative pleasures1 and to neglect their plain and practical duties1 the word romantic has come to signify weak1 foolish1 speculative1 unpractical1 unprincipled4 ,in all these cases it would be much better to say weak1 foolish1 unpractical1 unprincipled4 ,the words are clearer4 ,if in this sense1 also1 ,i put anything romantic before you1 pray pay no attention to me4 #ca4 ,but in the third and last place4 ,the real and proper use of the word romantic is simply to characterize an improbable or unaccustomed degree of beauty1 sublimity1 or virtue4 ,for instance1 in matters of history1 is not the ,retreat of the ,ten ,thousand romantic8 ,is not the death of ,leonidas8 of the ,horatii8 ,on the other hand1 you find nothing romantic1 though much that is monstrous1 in the excesses of ,tiberius or ,commodus4 ,so again1 the battle of ,agincourt is romantic1 and of ,bannockburn1 simply because there was an extraordinary display of human virtue in both these battles4 ,but there is no romance in the battles of the last ,italian campaign1 in which mere feebleness and distrust were on one side1 mere physical force on the other4 ,and even in fiction1 the opponents of virtue1 in order to be romantic1 must have sublimity mingled with their vice4 ,it is not the knave1 not the ruffian1 that are romantic1 but the giant and the dragon2 and these1 not because they are false1 but because they are majestic4 ,so again as to beauty4 ,you feel that armor is romantic1 because it is a beautiful dress1 and you are not used to it4 ,you do not feel there is anything romantic in the paint and shells of a ,sandwich ,islander1 for these are not beautiful4 #cb4 ,so1 then1 observe1 this feeling which you are accustomed to despise--this secret and poetical enthusiasm in all your hearts1 which1 as practical men1 you try to restrain--is indeed one of the holiest parts of your being4 ,it is the instinctive delight in1 and admiration for1 sublimity1 beauty1 and virtue1 unusually manifested4 ,and so far from being a dangerous guide1 it is the truest part of your being4 ,it is even truer than your consciences4 ,a man's conscience may be utterly perverted and led astray2 but so long as the feelings of romance endure within us1 they are unerring1--they are as true to what is right and lovely as the needle to the north2 and all that you have to do is to add to the enthusiastic sentiment1 the majestic judgment--to mingle prudence and foresight with imagination and admiration1 and you have the perfect human soul4 ,but the great evil of these days is that we try to destroy the romantic feeling1 instead of bridling and directing it4 ,mark what ,young says of the men of the world3-- ,they1 who think nought so strong of the romance1 ,so rank knight-errant1 as a real friend4 ,and they are right4 ,true friendship is romantic1 to the men of the world--true affection is romantic--true religion is romantic2 and if you were to ask me who of all powerful and popular writers in the cause of error had wrought most harm to their race1 ,i should hesitate in reply whether to name ,voltaire1 or ,byron1 or the last most ingenious and most venomous of the degraded philosophers of ,germany1 or rather ,cervantes1 for he cast scorn upon the holiest principles of humanity--he1 of all men1 most helped forward the terrible change in the soldiers of ,europe1 from the spirit of ,bayard to the spirit of ,bonaparte1#ae helped to change loyalty into license1 protection into plunder1 truth into treachery1 chivalry into selfishness2 and1 since his time1 the purest impulses and the noblest purposes have perhaps been oftener stayed by the devil1 under the name of ,quixotism1 than under any other base name or false allegation4 ,footnote #ae3 ,i mean no scandal against the present ,emperor of the ,french1 whose truth has1 ,i believe1 been as conspicuous in the late political negotiations1 as his decision and prudence have been throughout the whole course of his government4 #cc4 ,quixotism1 or ,utopianism2 that is another of the devil's pet words4 ,i believe the quiet admission which we are all of us so ready to make1 that1 because things have long been wrong1 it is impossible they should ever be right1 is one of the most fatal sources of misery and crime from which this world suffers4 ,whenever you hear a man dissuading you from attempting to do well1 on the ground that perfection is ,utopian2 beware of that man4 ,cast the word out of your dictionary altogether4 ,there is no need for it4 ,things are either possible or impossible--you can easily determine which1 in any given state of human science4 ,if the thing is impossible1 you need not trouble yourselves about it2 if possible1 try for it4 ,it is very ,utopian to hope for the entire doing away with drunkenness and misery out of the ,canongate2 but the ,utopianism is not our business--the work is4 ,it is ,utopian to hope to give every child in this kingdom the knowledge of ,god from its youth2 but the ,utopianism is not our business--the work is4 #cd4 ,i have delayed you by the consideration of these two words1 only in the fear that they might be inaccurately applied to the plans ,i am going to lay before you2 for1 though they were ,utopian1 and though they were romantic1 they might be none the worse for that4 ,but they are neither4 ,utopian they are not2 for they are merely a proposal to do again what has been done for hundreds of years by people whose wealth and power were as nothing compared to ours2--and romantic they are not1 in the sense of self-sacrificing or eminently virtuous1 for they are merely the proposal to each of you that he should live in a handsomer house than he does at present1 by substituting a cheap mode of ornamentation for a costly one4 ,you perhaps fancied that architectural beauty was a very costly thing4 ,far from it4 ,it is architectural ugliness that is costly4 ,in the modern system of architecture1 decoration is immoderately expensive1 because it is both wrongly placed and wrongly finished4 ,i say first1 wrongly placed4 ,modern architects decorate the tops of their buildings4 ,mediaeval ones decorated the bottom4#af ,that makes all the difference between seeing the ornament and not seeing it4 ,if you bought some pictures to decorate such a room as this1 where would you put them8 ,on a level with the eye1 ,i suppose1 or nearly so8 ,not on a level with the chandelier8 ,if you were determined to put them up there1 round the cornice1 it would be better for you not to buy them at all4 ,you would merely throw your money away4 ,and the fact is1 that your money is being thrown away continually1 by wholesale2 and while you are dissuaded1 on the ground of expense1 from building beautiful windows and beautiful doors1 you are continually made to pay for ornaments at the tops of your houses1 which1 for all the use they are of1 might as well be in the moon4 ,for instance1 there is not1 on the whole1 a more studied piece of domestic architecture in ,edinburgh than the street in which so many of your excellent physicians live--,rutland ,street4 ,i do not know if you have observed its architecture2 but if you will look at it to-morrow1 you will see that a heavy and close balustrade is put all along the eaves of the houses4 ,your physicians are not1 ,i suppose1 in the habit of taking academic and meditative walks on the roofs of their houses2 and1 if not1 this balustrade is altogether useless1--nor merely useless1 for you will find it runs directly in front of all the garret windows1 thus interfering with their light1 and blocking out their view of the street4 ,all that the parapet is meant to do1 is to give some finish to the facades1 and the inhabitants have thus been made to pay a large sum for a piece of mere decoration4 ,whether it does finish the facades satisfactorily1 or whether the physicians resident in the street1 or their patients1 are in anywise edified by the succession of pear-shaped knobs of stone on their house-tops1 ,i leave them to tell you2 only do not fancy that the design1 whatever its success1 is an economical one4 ,footnote #af3 ,for farther confirmation of this statement see the ,addenda at the end of this ,lecture4 #ce4 ,but this is a very slight waste of money1 compared to the constant habit of putting careful sculpture at the tops of houses4 ,a temple of luxury has just been built in ,london for the ,army and ,navy ,club4 ,it cost ,l#dj1jjj1 exclusive of purchase of ground4 ,it has upon it an enormous quantity of sculpture1 representing the gentlemen of the navy as little boys riding upon dolphins1 and the gentlemen of the army--,i couldn't see as what--nor can anybody2 for all this sculpture is put up at the top of the house1 where the gutter should be1 under the cornice4 ,i know that this was a ,greek way of doing things4 ,i can't help it2 that does not make it a wise one4 ,greeks might be willing to pay for what they couldn't see1 but ,scotchmen and ,englishmen shouldn't4 #cf4 ,not that the ,greeks threw their work away as we do4 ,as far as ,i know ,greek buildings1 their ornamentation1 though often bad1 is always bold enough and large enough to be visible in its place4 ,it is not putting ornament high that is wrong2 but it is cutting it too fine to be seen1 wherever it is4 ,this is the great modern mistake3 you are actually at twice the cost which would produce an impressive ornament1 to produce a contemptible one2 you increase the price of your buildings by one-half1 in order to mince their decoration into invisibility4 ,walk through your streets1 and try to make out the ornaments on the upper parts of your fine buildings--7there are none at the bottoms of them74 ,don't do it long1 or you will all come home with inflamed eyes1 but you will soon discover that you can see nothing but confusion in ornaments that have cost you ten or twelve shillings a foot4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,viii4 7,fig4 #ac41 ,fig4 #ad47 #cg4 ,now1 the ,gothic builders placed their decoration on a precisely contrary principle1 and on the only rational principle4 ,all their best and most delicate work they put on the foundation of the building1 close to the spectator1 and on the upper parts of the walls they put ornaments large1 bold1 and capable of being plainly seen at the necessary distance4 ,a single example will enable you to understand this method of adaptation perfectly4 ,the lower part of the facade of the cathedral of ,lyons1 built either late in the thirteenth or early in the fourteenth century1 is decorated with a series of niches1 filled by statues of considerable size1 which are supported upon pedestals within about eight feet of the ground4 ,in general1 pedestals of this kind are supported on some projecting portion of the basement2 but at ,lyons1 owing to other arrangements of the architecture into which ,i have no time to enter1 they are merely projecting tablets1 or flat-bottomed brackets of stone1 projecting from the wall4 ,each bracket is about a foot and a half square1 and is shaped thus 7fig4 #ac71 showing to the spectator1 as he walks beneath1 the flat bottom of each bracket1 quite in the shade1 but within a couple of feet of the eye1 and lighted by the reflected light from the pavement4 ,the whole of the surface of the wall round the great entrance is covered with bas-relief1 as a matter of course2 but the architect appears to have been jealous of the smallest space which was well within the range of sight2 and the bottom of every bracket is decorated also--nor that slightly1 but decorated with no fewer than six figures each1 besides a flower border1 in a space1 as ,i said1 not quite a foot and a half square4 ,the shape of the field to be decorated being a kind of quatre-foil1 as shown in fig4 #ac1 four small figures are placed1 one in each foil1 and two larger ones in the center4 ,i had only time1 in passing through the town1 to make a drawing of one of the angles of these pedestals2 that sketch ,i have enlarged1 in order that you may have some idea of the character of the sculpture4 ,here is the enlargement of it 7fig4 #ae74 ,now observe1 this is one of the angles of the bottom of a pedestal1 not two feet broad1 on the outside of a ,gothic building2 it contains only one of the four little figures which form those angles2 and it shows you the head only of one of the larger figures in the center4 ,yet just observe how much design1 how much wonderful composition1 there is in this mere fragment of a building of the great times2 a fragment1 literally no larger than a school-boy could strike off in wantonness with a stick3 and yet ,i cannot tell you how much care has been spent--not so much on the execution1 for it does not take much trouble to execute well on so small a scale--but on the design1 of this minute fragment4 ,you see it is composed of a branch of wild roses1 which switches round at the angle1 embracing the minute figure of the bishop1 and terminates in a spray reaching nearly to the head of the large figure4 ,you will observe how beautifully that figure is thus pointed to by the spray of rose1 and how all the leaves around it in the same manner are subservient to the grace of its action4 ,look1 if ,i hide one line1 or one rosebud1 how the whole is injured1 and how much there is to study in the detail of it4 ,look at this little diamond crown1 with a lock of the hair escaping from beneath it2 and at the beautiful way in which the tiny leaf at a1 is set in the angle to prevent its harshness2 and having examined this well1 consider what a treasure of thought there is in a cathedral front1 a hundred feet wide1 every inch of which is wrought with sculpture like this6 ,and every front of our thirteenth century cathedrals is inwrought with sculpture of this quality6 ,and yet you quietly allow yourselves to be told that the men who thus wrought were barbarians1 and that your architects are wiser and better in covering your walls with sculpture of this kind 7fig4 #ad1 ,plate ,,viii47 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ix4 7,fig4 #ae47 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,x4 7,fig4 #af47 #ch4 ,walk round your ,edinburgh buildings1 and look at the height of your eye1 what you will get from them4 ,nothing but square-cut stone--square-cut stone--a wilderness of square-cut stone forever and forever2 so that your houses look like prisons1 and truly are so2 for the worst feature of ,greek architecture is1 indeed1 not its costliness1 but its tyranny4 ,these square stones are not prisons of the body1 but graves of the soul2 for the very men who could do sculpture like this of ,lyons for you are here6 still here1 in your despised workmen3 the race has not degenerated1 it is you who have bound them down1 and buried them beneath your ,greek stones4 ,there would be a resurrection of them1 as of renewed souls1 if you would only lift the weight of these weary walls from off their hearts4#ag ,footnote #ag3 ,this subject is farther pursued in the ,addenda at the end of this ,lecture4 #ci4 ,but ,i am leaving the point immediately in question1 which1 you will remember1 was the proper adaptation of ornament to its distance from the eye4 ,i have given you one example of ,gothic ornament1 meant to be seen close2 now let me give you one of ,gothic ornament intended to be seen far off4 ,here 7fig4 #af7 is a sketch of a niche at ,amiens ,cathedral1 some fifty or sixty feet high on the facade1 and seven or eight feet wide4 ,now observe1 in the ornament close to the eye1 you had six figures and a whole wreath of roses in the space of a foot and a half square2 but in the ornament sixty feet from the eye1 you have now only ten or twelve large leaves in a space of eight feet square6 and note also that now there is no attempt whatsoever at the refinement of line and finish of edge which there was in the other example4 ,the sculptor knew that1 at the height of this niche1 people would not attend to the delicate lines1 and that the broad shadows would catch the eye instead4 ,he has therefore left1 as you see1 rude square edges to his niche1 and carved his leaves as massively and broadly as possible3 and yet1 observe how dexterously he has given you a sense of delicacy and minuteness in the work1 by mingling these small leaves among the large ones4 ,i made this sketch from a photograph1 and the spot in which these leaves occurred was obscure2 ,i have1 therefore1 used those of the ,oxalis acetosella1 of which the quaint form is always interesting4 #dj4 ,and you see by this example also what ,i meant just now by saying1 that our own ornament was not only wrongly placed1 but wrongly ,,finished4 ,the very qualities which fit this leaf-decoration for due effect upon the eye1 are those which would conduce to economy in its execution4 ,a more expensive ornament would be less effective2 and it is the very price we pay for finishing our decorations which spoils our architecture4 ,and the curious thing is1 that while you all appreciate1 and that far too highly1 what is called the bold style in painting1 you cannot appreciate it in sculpture4 ,you like a hurried1 broad1 dashing manner of execution in a water-color drawing1 though that may be seen as near as you choose1 and yet you refuse to admit the nobleness of a bold1 simple1 and dashing stroke of the chisel in work which is to be seen forty fathoms off4 ,be assured that handling is as great a thing in marble as in paint1 and that the power of producing a masterly effect with few touches is as essential in an architect as in a draughtsman2 though indeed that power is never perfectly attained except by those who possess the power of giving the highest finish when there is occasion4 #da4 ,but there is yet another and a weightier charge to be brought against our modern ,pseudo-,greek ornamentation4 ,it is1 first1 wrongly placed2 secondly1 wrongly finished2 and1 thirdly1 utterly without meaning4 ,observe in these two ,gothic ornaments1 and in every other ornament that ever was carved in the great ,gothic times1 there is a definite aim at the representation of some natural object4 ,in fig4 #ae you have an exquisite group of rose-stems1 with the flowers and buds2 in fig4 #af1 various wild weeds1 especially the ,geranium pratense2 in every case you have an approximation to a natural form1 and an unceasing variety of suggestion4 ,but how much of ,nature have you in your ,greek buildings8 ,i will show you1 taking for an example the best you have lately built2 and1 in doing so1 ,i trust that nothing that ,i say will be thought to have any personal purpose1 and that the architect of the building in question will forgive me2 for it is just because it is a good example of the style that ,i think it more fair to use it for an example4 ,if the building were a bad one of the kind1 it would not be a fair instance2 and ,i hope1 therefore1 that in speaking of the institution on the ,mound1 just in progress1 ,i shall be understood as meaning rather a compliment to its architect than otherwise4 ,it is not his fault that we force him to build in the ,greek manner4 #db4 ,now1 according to the orthodox practice in modern architecture1 the most delicate and minute pieces of sculpture on that building are at the very top of it1 just under its gutter4 ,you cannot see them in a dark day1 and perhaps may never1 to this hour1 have noticed them at all4 ,but there they are3 sixty-six finished heads of lions1 all exactly the same2 and1 therefore1 ,i suppose1 executed on some noble ,greek type1 too noble to allow any modest ,modern to think of improving upon it4 ,but whether executed on a ,greek type or no1 it is to be presumed that1 as there are sixty-six of them alike1 and on so important a building as that which is to contain your school of design1 and which is the principal example of the ,athenian style in modern ,athens1 there must be something especially admirable in them1 and deserving your most attentive contemplation4 ,in order1 therefore1 that you might have a fair opportunity of estimating their beauty1 ,i was desirous of getting a sketch of a real lion's head to compare with them1 and my friend ,mr4 ,millais kindly offered to draw both the one and the other for me4 ,you have not1 however1 at present1 a lion in your zoological collection2 and it being1 as you are probably aware1 the first principle of ,pre-,raphaelitism1 as well as essential to my object in the present instance1 that no drawing should be made except from ,nature itself1 ,i was obliged to be content with a tiger's head1 which1 however1 will answer my purpose just as well1 in enabling you to compare a piece of true1 faithful1 and natural work with modern architectural sculpture4 ,here1 in the first place1 is ,mr4 ,millais' drawing from the living beast 7fig4 #ag1 frontispiece74 ,i have not the least fear but that you will at once acknowledge its truth and feel its power4 ,prepare yourselves next for the ,grecian sublimity of the ideal beast1 from the cornice of your schools of design4 ,behold it 7fig4 #ah74 #dc4 ,now we call ourselves civilized and refined in matters of art1 but ,i assure you it is seldom that1 in the very basest and coarsest grotesques of the inferior ,gothic workmen1 anything so contemptible as this head can be ever found4 ,they only sink into such a failure accidentally1 and in a single instance2 and we1 in our civilization1 repeat this noble piece of work threescore and six times over1 as not being able to invent anything else so good6 ,do not think ,mr4 ,millais has caricatured it4 ,it is drawn with the strictest fidelity2 photograph one of the heads to-morrow1 and you will find the photograph tell you the same tale4 ,neither imagine that this is an unusual example of modern work4 ,your banks and public offices are covered with ideal lions' heads in every direction1 and you will find them all just as bad as this4 ,and1 farther1 note that the admission of such barbarous types of sculpture is not merely ridiculous2 it is seriously harmful to your powers of perceiving truth or beauty of any kind or at any time4 ,imagine the effect on the minds of your children of having such representations of a lion's head as this thrust upon them perpetually2 and consider what a different effect might be produced upon them if1 instead of this barren and insipid absurdity1 every boss on your buildings were1 according to the workman's best ability1 a faithful rendering of the form of some existing animal1 so that all their walls were so many pages of natural history4 ,and1 finally1 consider the difference1 with respect to the mind of the workman himself1 between being kept all his life carving1 by sixties1 and forties1 and thirties1 repetitions of one false and futile model1--and being sent1 for every piece of work he had to execute1 to make a stern and faithful study from some living creature of ,god4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,xi4 7,fig4 #ag41 ,fig4 #ah47 #dd4 ,and this last consideration enables me to press this subject on you on far higher grounds than ,i have done yet4 ,i have hitherto appealed only to your national pride1 or to your common sense2 but surely ,i should treat a ,scottish audience with indignity if ,i appealed not finally to something higher than either of them1--to their religious principles4 ,you know how often it is difficult to be wisely charitable1 to do good without multiplying the sources of evil4 ,you know that to give alms is nothing unless you give thought also2 and that therefore it is written1 not blessed is he that feedeth the poor1 but1 blessed is he that considereth the poor4 ,and you know that a little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money4 #de4 ,now this charity of thought is not merely to be exercised towards the poor2 it is to be exercised towards all men4 ,there is assuredly no action of our social life1 however unimportant1 which1 by kindly thought1 may not be made to have a beneficial influence upon others2 and it is impossible to spend the smallest sum of money1 for any not absolutely necessary purpose1 without a grave responsibility attaching to the manner of spending it4 ,the object we ourselves covet may1 indeed1 be desirable and harmless1 so far as we are concerned1 but the providing us with it may1 perhaps1 be a very prejudicial occupation to some one else4 ,and then it becomes instantly a moral question1 whether we are to indulge ourselves or not4 ,whatever we wish to buy1 we ought first to consider not only if the thing be fit for us1 but if the manufacture of it be a wholesome and happy one2 and if1 on the whole1 the sum we are going to spend will do as much good spent in this way as it would if spent in any other way4 ,it may be said that we have not time to consider all this before we make a purchase4 ,but no time could be spent in a more important duty2 and ,god never imposes a duty without giving the time to do it4 ,let us1 however1 only acknowledge the principle2--once make up your mind to allow the consideration of the effect of your purchases to regulate the kind of your purchase1 and you will soon easily find grounds enough to decide upon4 ,the plea of ignorance will never take away our responsibilities4 ,it is written1 ,if thou sayest1 ,behold1 we knew it not2 doth not ,he that pondereth the heart consider it8 and ,he that keepeth thy soul1 doth not ,he know it8 #df4 ,i could press this on you at length1 but ,i hasten to apply the principle to the subject of art4 ,i will do so broadly at first1 and then come to architecture4 ,enormous sums are spent annually by this country in what is called patronage of art1 but in what is for the most part merely buying what strikes our fancies4 ,true and judicious patronage there is indeed2 many a work of art is bought by those who do not care for its possession1 to assist the struggling artist1 or relieve the unsuccessful one4 ,but for the most part1 ,i fear we are too much in the habit of buying simply what we like best1 wholly irrespective of any good to be done1 either to the artist or to the schools of the country4 ,now let us remember1 that every farthing we spend on objects of art has influence over men's minds and spirits1 far more than over their bodies4 ,by the purchase of every print which hangs on your walls1 of every cup out of which you drink1 and every table off which you eat your bread1 you are educating a mass of men in one way or another4 ,you are either employing them healthily or unwholesomely2 you are making them lead happy or unhappy lives2 you are leading them to look at ,nature1 and to love her--to think1 to feel1 to enjoy1--or you are blinding them to ,nature1 and keeping them bound1 like beasts of burden1 in mechanical and monotonous employments4 ,we shall all be asked one day1 why we did not think more of this4 #dg4 ,well1 but1 you will say1 how can we decide what we ought to buy1 but by our likings8 ,you would not have us buy what we don't like8 ,no1 but ,i would have you thoroughly sure that there is an absolute right and wrong in all art1 and try to find out the right1 and like that2 and1 secondly1 sometimes to sacrifice a careless preference or fancy1 to what you know is for the good of your fellow-creatures4 ,for instance1 when you spend a guinea upon an engraving1 what have you done8 ,you have paid a man for a certain number of hours to sit at a dirty table1 in a dirty room1 inhaling the fumes of nitric acid1 stooping over a steel plate1 on which1 by the help of a magnifying glass1 he is1 one by one1 laboriously cutting out certain notches and scratches1 of which the effect is to be the copy of another man's work4 ,you cannot suppose you have done a very charitable thing in this6 ,on the other hand1 whenever you buy a small water-color drawing1 you have employed a man happily and healthily1 working in a clean room 7if he likes71 or more probably still1 out in the pure country and fresh air1 thinking about something1 and learning something every moment2 not straining his eyesight1 nor breaking his back1 but working in ease and happiness4 ,therefore if you can like a modest water-color better than an elaborate engraving1 do4 ,there may indeed be engravings which are worth the suffering it costs to produce them2 but at all events1 engravings of public dinners and laying of foundation-stones1 and such things1 might be dispensed with4 ,the engraving ought to be a first-rate picture of a first-rate subject to be worth buying4 #dh4 ,farther1 ,i know that many conscientious persons are desirous of encouraging art1 but feel at the same time that their judgment is not certain enough to secure their choice of the best kind of art4 ,to such persons ,i would now especially address myself1 fully admitting the greatness of their difficulty4 ,it is not an easy thing to acquire a knowledge of painting2 and it is by no means a desirable thing to encourage bad painting4 ,one bad painter makes another1 and one bad painting will often spoil a great many healthy judgments4 ,i could name popular painters now living1 who have retarded the taste of their generation by twenty years4 ,unless1 therefore1 we are certain not merely that we like a painting1 but that we are right in liking it1 we should never buy it4 ,for there is one way of spending money which is perfectly safe1 and in which we may be absolutely sure of doing good4 ,i mean1 by paying for simple sculpture of natural objects1 chiefly flowers and animals4 ,you are aware that the possibilities of error in sculpture are much less than in painting2 it is altogether an easier and simpler art1 invariably attaining perfection long before painting1 in the progress of a national mind4 ,it may indeed be corrupted by false taste1 or thrown into erroneous forms2 but for the most part1 the feebleness of a sculptor is shown in imperfection and rudeness1 rather than in definite error4 ,he does not reach the fineness of the forms of ,nature2 but he approaches them truly up to a certain point1 or1 if not so1 at all events an honest effort will continually improve him3 so that if we set a simple natural form before him1 and tell him to copy it1 we are sure we have given him a wholesome and useful piece of education2 but if we told him to paint it1 he might1 with all the honesty in the world1 paint it wrongly and falsely1 to the end of his days4 #di4 ,so much for the workman4 ,but the workman is not the only person concerned4 ,observe farther1 that when you buy a print1 the enjoyment of it is confined to yourself and to your friends4 ,but if you carve a piece of stone1 and put it on the outside of your house1 it will give pleasure to every person who passes along the street--to an innumerable multitude1 instead of a few4 ,nay1 but1 you say1 we ourselves shall not be benefited by the sculpture on the outsides of our houses4 ,yes1 you will1 and in an extraordinary degree2 for1 observe farther1 that architecture differs from painting peculiarly in being an art of accumulation4 ,the prints bought by your friends1 and hung up in their houses1 have no collateral effect with yours3 they must be separately examined1 and if ever they were hung side by side1 they would rather injure than assist each other's effect4 ,but the sculpture on your friend's house unites in effect with that on your own4 ,the two houses form one grand mass--far grander than either separately2 much more if a third be added--and a fourth2 much more if the whole street--if the whole city--join in the solemn harmony of sculpture4 ,your separate possessions of pictures and prints are to you as if you sang pieces of music with your single voices in your own houses4 ,but your architecture would be as if you all sang together in one mighty choir4 ,in the separate picture1 it is rare that there exists any very high source of sublime emotion2 but the great concerted music of the streets of the city1 when turret rises over turret1 and casement frowns beyond casement1 and tower succeeds to tower along the farthest ridges of the inhabited hills1--this is a sublimity of which you can at present form no conception2 and capable1 ,i believe1 of exciting almost the deepest emotion that art can ever strike from the bosoms of men4 ,and justly the deepest3 for it is a law of ,god and of ,nature1 that your pleasures--as your virtues--shall be enhanced by mutual aid4 ,as1 by joining hand in hand1 you can sustain each other best1 so1 hand in hand1 you can delight each other best4 ,and there is indeed a charm and sacredness in street architecture which must be wanting even to that of the temple3 it is a little thing for men to unite in the forms of a religious service1 but it is much for them to unite1 like true brethren1 in the arts and offices of their daily lives4 #ej4 ,and now1 ,i can conceive only of one objection as likely still to arise in your minds1 which ,i must briefly meet4 ,your pictures1 and other smaller works of art1 you can carry with you1 wherever you live2 your house must be left behind4 ,indeed1 ,i believe that the wandering habits which have now become almost necessary to our existence1 lie more at the root of our bad architecture than any other character of modern times4 ,we always look upon our houses as mere temporary lodgings4 ,we are always hoping to get larger and finer ones1 or are forced1 in some way or other1 to live where we do not choose1 and in continual expectation of changing our place of abode4 ,in the present state of society1 this is in a great measure unavoidable2 but let us remember it is an evil2 and that so far as it is avoidable1 it becomes our duty to check the impulse4 ,it is not for me to lead you at present into any consideration of a matter so closely touching your private interests and feelings2 but it surely is a subject for serious thought1 whether it might not be better for many of us1 if1 on attaining a certain position in life1 we determined1 with ,god's permission1 to choose a home in which to live and die1--a home not to be increased by adding stone to stone and field to field1 but which1 being enough for all our wishes at that period1 we should resolve to be satisfied with forever4 ,consider this2 and also1 whether we ought not to be more in the habit of seeking honor from our descendants than our ancestors2 thinking it better to be nobly remembered than nobly born2 and striving so to live1 that our sons1 and our sons' sons1 for ages to come1 might still lead their children reverently to the doors out of which we had been carried to the grave1 saying1 ,look3 ,this was his house3 ,this was his chamber4 #ea4 ,i believe that you can bring forward no other serious objection to the principles for which ,i am pleading4 ,they are so simple1 and1 it seems to me1 so incontrovertible1 that ,i trust you will not leave this room1 without determining1 as you have opportunity1 to do something to advance this long-neglected art of domestic architecture4 ,the reasons ,i have laid before you would have weight1 even were ,i to ask you to go to some considerable expenditure beyond what you at present are accustomed to devote to such purposes2 but nothing more would be needed than the diversion of expenditures1 at present scattered and unconsidered1 into a single and effective channel4 ,nay1 the mere interest of the money which we are accustomed to keep dormant by us in the form of plate and jewelry1 would alone be enough to sustain a school of magnificent architecture4 ,and although1 in highly wrought plate1 and in finely designed jewelry1 noble art may occasionally exist1 yet in general both jewels and services of silver are matters of ostentation1 much more than sources of intellectual pleasure4 ,there are also many evils connected with them--they are a care to their possessors1 a temptation to the dishonest1 and a trouble and bitterness to the poor4 ,so that ,i cannot but think that part of the wealth which now lies buried in these doubtful luxuries1 might most wisely and kindly be thrown into a form which would give perpetual pleasure1 not to its possessor only1 but to thousands besides1 and neither tempt the unprincipled1 nor inflame the envious1 nor mortify the poor2 while1 supposing that your own dignity was dear to you1 this1 you may rely upon it1 would be more impressed upon others by the nobleness of your house-walls than by the glistening of your sideboards4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,xii4 7,fig4 #ai47 #eb4 ,and even supposing that some additional expenditure were required for this purpose1 are we indeed so much poorer than our ancestors1 that we cannot now1 in all the power of ,britain1 afford to do what was done by every small republic1 by every independent city1 in the ,middle ,ages1 throughout ,france1 ,italy1 and ,germany8 ,i am not aware of a vestige of domestic architecture1 belonging to the great mediaeval periods1 which1 according to its material and character1 is not richly decorated4 ,but look here 7fig4 #ai71 look to what an extent decoration has been carried in the domestic edifices of a city1 ,i suppose not much superior in importance1 commercially speaking1 to ,manchester1 ,liverpool1 or ,birmingham--namely1 ,rouen1 in ,normandy4 ,this is a garret window1 still existing there1--a garret window built by ,william de ,bourgtheroude in the early part of the sixteenth century4 ,i show it you1 first1 as a proof of what may be made of the features of domestic buildings we are apt to disdain2 and secondly1 as another example of a beautiful use of the pointed arch1 filled by the solid shield of stone1 and inclosing a square casement4 ,it is indeed a peculiarly rich and beautiful instance1 but it is a type of which many examples still exist in ,france1 and of which many once existed in your own ,scotland1 of ruder work indeed1 but admirable always in the effect upon the outline of the building4#ah ,footnote #ah3 ,one of the most beautiful instances ,i know of this kind of window is in the ancient house of the ,maxwells1 on the estate of ,sir ,john ,maxwell of ,polloc4 ,i had not seen it when ,i gave this lecture1 or ,i should have preferred it1 as an example1 to that of ,rouen1 with reference to modern possibilities of imitation4 #ec4 ,i do not1 however1 hope that you will often be able to go as far as this in decoration2 in fact ,i would rather recommend a simpler style to you1 founded on earlier examples2 but1 if possible1 aided by color1 introduced in various kinds of naturally colored stones4 ,i have observed that your ,scottish lapidaries have admirable taste and skill in the disposition of the pebbles of your brooches and other ornaments of dress2 and ,i have not the least doubt that the genius of your country would1 if directed to this particular style of architecture1 produce works as beautiful as they would be thoroughly national4 ,the ,gothic of ,florence1 which owes at least the half of its beauty to the art of inlaying1 would furnish you with exquisite examples2 its sculpture is indeed the most perfect which was ever produced by the ,gothic schools2 but1 besides this rich sculpture1 all its flat surfaces are inlaid with colored stones1 much being done with a green serpentine1 which forms the greater part of the coast of ,genoa4 ,you have1 ,i believe1 large beds of this rock in ,scotland1 and other stones besides1 peculiarly ,scottish1 calculated to form as noble a school of color as ever existed4#ai ,footnote #ai3 ,a series of four examples of designs for windows was exhibited at this point of the lecture1 but ,i have not engraved them1 as they were hastily made for the purposes of momentary illustration1 and are not such as ,i choose to publish or perpetuate4 #ed4 ,and1 now1 ,i have but two things more to say to you in conclusion4 ,most of the lecturers whom you allow to address you1 lay before you views of the sciences they profess1 which are either generally received1 or incontrovertible4 ,i come before you at a disadvantage2 for ,i cannot conscientiously tell you anything about architecture but what is at variance with all commonly received views upon the subject4 ,i come before you1 professedly to speak of things forgotten or things disputed2 and ,i lay before you1 not accepted principles1 but questions at issue4 ,of those questions you are to be the judges1 and to you ,i appeal4 ,you must not1 when you leave this room1 if you feel doubtful of the truth of what ,i have said1 refer yourselves to some architect of established reputation1 and ask him whether ,i am right or not4 ,you might as well1 had you lived in the sixteenth century1 have asked a ,roman ,catholic archbishop his opinion of the first reformer4 ,i deny his jurisdiction2 ,i refuse his decision4 ,i call upon you to be ,bereans in architecture1 as you are in religion1 and to search into these things for yourselves4 ,remember that1 however candid a man may be1 it is too much to expect of him when his career in life has been successful1 to turn suddenly on the highway1 and to declare that all he has learned has been false1 and all he has done1 worthless2 yet nothing less than such a declaration as this must be made by nearly every existing architect1 before he admitted the truth of one word that ,i have said to you this evening4 ,you must be prepared1 therefore1 to hear my opinions attacked with all the virulence of established interest1 and all the pertinacity of confirmed prejudice2 you will hear them made the subjects of every species of satire and invective2 but one kind of opposition to them you will never hear2 you will never hear them met by quiet1 steady1 rational argument2 for that is the one way in which they cannot be met4 ,you will constantly hear me accused--you yourselves may be the first to accuse me--of presumption in speaking thus confidently against the established authority of ages4 ,presumption6 ,yes1 if ,i had spoken on my own authority2 but ,i have appealed to two incontrovertible and irrefragable witnesses--to the nature that is around you--to the reason that is within you4 ,and if you are willing in this matter to take the voice of authority against that of nature and of reason1 take it in other things also4 ,take it in religion1 as you do in architecture4 ,it is not by a ,scottish audience--not by the descendants of the ,reformer and the ,covenanter--that ,i expected to be met with a refusal to believe that the world might possibly have been wrong for three hundred years1 in their ways of carving stones and setting up of pillars1 when they know that they were wrong for twelve hundred years1 in their marking how the roads divided1 that led to ,hell and ,heaven4 #ee4 ,you must expect at first that there will be difficulties and inconsistencies in carrying out the new style2 but they will soon be conquered if you attempt not too much at once4 ,do not be afraid of incongruities--do not think of unities of effect4 ,introduce your ,gothic line by line and stone by stone2 never mind mixing it with your present architecture2 your existing houses will be none the worse for having little bits of better work fitted to them2 build a porch1 or point a window1 if you can do nothing else2 and remember that it is the glory of ,gothic architecture that it can do anything4 ,whatever you really and seriously want1 ,gothic will do for you2 but it must be an earnest want4 ,it is its pride to accommodate itself to your needs2 and the one general law under which it acts is simply this1--find out what will make you comfortable1 build that in the strongest and boldest way1 and then set your fancy free in the decoration of it4 ,don't do anything to imitate this cathedral or that1 however beautiful4 ,do what is convenient2 and if the form be a new one1 so much the better2 then set your mason's wits to work1 to find out some new way of treating it4 ,only be steadily determined that1 even if you cannot get the best ,gothic1 at least you will have no ,greek2 and in a few years' time--in less time than you could learn a new science or a new language thoroughly--the whole art of your native country will be reanimated4 #ef4 ,and1 now1 lastly4 ,when this shall be accomplished1 do not think it will make little difference to you1 and that you will be little the happier1 or little the better for it4 ,you have at present no conception1 and can have none1 how much you would enjoy a truly beautiful architecture2 but ,i can give you a proof of it which none of you will be able to deny4 ,you will all assuredly admit this principle1--that whatever temporal things are spoken of in the ,bible as emblems of the highest spiritual blessings1 must be good things in themselves4 ,you would allow that bread1 for instance1 would not have been used as an emblem of the word of life1 unless it had been good1 and necessary for man2 nor water used as the emblem of sanctification1 unless it also had been good and necessary for man4 ,you will allow that oil1 and honey1 and balm are good1 when ,david says1 ,let the righteous reprove me2 it shall be an excellent oil2 or1 ,how sweet are thy words unto my taste2 yea1 sweeter than honey to my mouth2 or1 when ,jeremiah cries out in his weeping1 ,is there no balm in ,gilead8 is there no physician there8 ,you would admit at once that the man who said there was no taste in the literal honey1 and no healing in the literal balm1 must be of distorted judgment1 since ,god had used them as emblems of spiritual sweetness and healing4 ,and how1 then1 will you evade the conclusion1 that there must be joy1 and comfort1 and instruction in the literal beauty of architecture1 when ,god1 descending in ,his utmost love to the distressed ,jerusalem1 and addressing to her ,his most precious and solemn promises1 speaks to her in such words as these3 ,oh1 thou afflicted1 tossed with tempest1 and not comforted1--,what shall be done to her8--,what brightest emblem of blessing will ,god set before her8 ,behold1 ,i will lay thy stones with fair colors1 and thy foundations with sapphires2 and ,i will make thy windows of agates1 and thy gates of carbuncles1 and all thy borders of pleasant stones4 ,nor is this merely an emblem of spiritual blessing2 for that blessing is added in the concluding words1 ,and all thy children shall be taught of the ,lord1 and great shall be the peace of thy children4 ,,addenda ,,to ,,lectures ,i4 ,,and ,,ii4 #eg4 ,the delivery of the foregoing lectures excited1 as it may be imagined1 considerable indignation among the architects who happened to hear them1 and elicited various attempts at reply4 ,as it seemed to have been expected by the writers of these replies1 that in two lectures1 each of them lasting not much more than an hour1 ,i should have been able completely to discuss the philosophy and history of the architecture of the world1 besides meeting every objection1 and reconciling every apparent contradiction1 which might suggest itself to the minds of hearers with whom1 probably1 from first to last1 ,i had not a single exactly correspondent idea relating to the matters under discussion1 it seems unnecessary to notice any of them in particular4 ,but as this volume may perhaps fall into the hands of readers who have not time to refer to the works in which my views have been expressed more at large1 and as ,i shall now not be able to write or to say anything more about architecture for some time to come1 it may be useful to state here1 and explain in the shortest possible compass1 the main gist of the propositions which ,i desire to maintain respecting that art2 and also to note and answer1 once for all1 such arguments as are ordinarily used by the architects of the modern school to controvert these propositions4 ,they may be reduced under six heads4 #a4 ,that ,gothic or ,romanesque construction is nobler than ,greek construction4 #b4 ,that ornamentation is the principal part of architecture4 #c4 ,that ornamentation should be visible4 #d4 ,that ornamentation should be natural4 #e4 ,that ornamentation should be thoughtful4 #f4 ,and that therefore ,gothic ornamentation is nobler than ,greek ornamentation1 and ,gothic architecture the only architecture which should now be built4 #eh4 ,proposition #ast4--,gothic or ,romanesque construction is nobler than ,greek construction4#bj ,that is to say1 building an arch1 vault1 or dome1 is a nobler and more ingenious work than laying a flat stone or beam over the space to be covered4 ,it is1 for instance1 a nobler and more ingenious thing to build an arched bridge over a stream1 than to lay two pine-trunks across from bank to bank2 and1 in like manner1 it is a nobler and more ingenious thing to build an arch over a window1 door1 or room1 than to lay a single flat stone over the same space4 ,footnote #bj3 ,the constructive value of ,gothic architecture is1 however1 far greater than that of ,romanesque1 as the pointed arch is not only susceptible of an infinite variety of forms and applications to the weight to be sustained1 but it possesses1 in the outline given to its masonry at its perfect periods1 the means of self-sustainment to a far greater degree than the round arch4 ,i pointed out1 for1 ,i believe1 the first time1 the meaning and constructive value of the ,gothic cusp1 in page #abi of the first volume of the ,stones of ,venice4 ,that statement was first denied1 and then taken advantage of1 by modern architects2 and considering how often it has been alleged that ,i have no practical knowledge of architecture1 it cannot but be matter of some triumph to me1 to find ,the ,builder1 of the #bast ,january1 #ahed1 describing as a new invention1 the successful application to a church in ,carlow of the principle which ,i laid down in the year #ahea4 ,no architects have ever attempted seriously to controvert this proposition4 ,sometimes1 however1 they say that of two ways of doing a thing1 the best and most perfect is not always to be adopted1 for there may be particular reasons for employing an inferior one4 ,this ,i am perfectly ready to grant1 only let them show their reasons in each particular case4 ,sometimes also they say1 that there is a charm in the simple construction which is lost in the scientific one4 ,this ,i am also perfectly ready to grant4 ,there is a charm in ,stonehenge which there is not in ,amiens ,cathedral1 and a charm in an ,alpine pine bridge which there is not in the ,ponte della ,trinita at ,florence1 and1 in general1 a charm in savageness which there is not in science4 ,but do not let it be said1 therefore1 that savageness is science4 #ei4 ,proposition #b;d4--,ornamentation is the principal part of architecture4 ,that is to say1 the highest nobility of a building does not consist in its being well built1 but in its being nobly sculptured or painted4 ,this is always1 and at the first hearing of it1 very naturally1 considered one of my most heretical propositions4 ,it is also one of the most important ,i have to maintain2 and it must be permitted me to explain it at some length4 ,the first thing to be required of a building--not1 observe1 the highest thing1 but the first thing--is that it shall answer its purposes completely1 permanently1 and at the smallest expense4 ,if it is a house1 it should be just of the size convenient for its owner1 containing exactly the kind and number of rooms that he wants1 with exactly the number of windows he wants1 put in the places that he wants4 ,if it is a church1 it should be just large enough for its congregation1 and of such shape and disposition as shall make them comfortable in it and let them hear well in it4 ,if it be a public office1 it should be so disposed as is most convenient for the clerks in their daily avocations2 and so on2 all this being utterly irrespective of external appearance or aesthetic considerations of any kind1 and all being done solidly1 securely1 and at the smallest necessary cost4 ,the sacrifice of any of these first requirements to external appearance is a futility and absurdity4 ,rooms must not be darkened to make the ranges of windows symmetrical4 ,useless wings must not be added on one side1 to balance useful wings on the other1 but the house built with one wing1 if the owner has no need of two2 and so on4 #fj4 ,but observe1 in doing all this1 there is no ,high1 or as it is commonly called1 ,fine ,art1 required at all4 ,there may be much science1 together with the lower form of art1 or handicraft1 but there is as yet no ,fine ,art4 ,house-building1 on these terms1 is no higher thing than ship-building4 ,it indeed will generally be found that the edifice designed with this masculine reference to utility1 will have a charm about it1 otherwise unattainable1 just as a ship1 constructed with simple reference to its service against powers of wind and wave1 turns out one of the loveliest things that human hands produce4 ,still1 we do not1 and properly do not1 hold ship-building to be a fine art1 nor preserve in our memories the names of immortal ship-builders2 neither1 so long as the mere utility and constructive merit of the building are regarded1 is architecture to be held a fine art1 or are the names of architects to be remembered immortally4 ,for any one may at any time be taught to build the ship1 or 7thus far7 the house1 and there is nothing deserving of immortality in doing what any one may be taught to do4 ,but when the house1 or church1 or other building is thus far designed1 and the forms of its dead walls and dead roofs are up to this point determined1 comes the divine part of the work--namely1 to turn these dead walls into living ones4 ,only ,deity1 that is to say1 those who are taught by ,deity1 can do that4 ,and that is to be done by painting and sculpture1 that is to say1 by ornamentation4 ,ornamentation is therefore the principal part of architecture1 considered as a subject of fine art4 #fa4 ,now observe4 ,it will at once follow from this principle1 that a great architect must be a great sculptor or painter4 ,this is a universal law4 ,no person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect4 ,if he is not a sculptor or painter1 he can only be a builder4 ,the three greatest architects hitherto known in the world were ,phidias1 ,giotto1 and ,michael ,angelo2 with all of whom1 architecture was only their play1 sculpture and painting their work4 ,all great works of architecture in existence are either the work of single sculptors or painters1 or of societies of sculptors and painters1 acting collectively for a series of years4 ,a ,gothic cathedral is properly to be defined as a piece of the most magnificent associative sculpture1 arranged on the noblest principles of building1 for the service and delight of multitudes2 and the proper definition of architecture1 as distinguished from sculpture1 is merely the art of designing sculpture for a particular place1 and placing it there on the best principles of building4 ,hence it clearly follows1 that in modern days we have no architects4 ,the term architecture is not so much as understood by us4 ,i am very sorry to be compelled to the discourtesy of stating this fact1 but a fact it is1 and a fact which it is necessary to state strongly4 ,hence also it will follow1 that the first thing necessary to the possession of a school of architecture is the formation of a school of able sculptors1 and that till we have that1 nothing we do can be called architecture at all4 #fb4 ,this1 then1 being my second proposition1 the so-called architects of the day1 as the reader will imagine1 are not willing to admit it1 or to admit any statement which at all involves it2 and every statement1 tending in this direction1 which ,i have hitherto made1 has of course been met by eager opposition2 opposition which perhaps would have been still more energetic1 but that architects have not1 ,i think1 till lately1 been quite aware of the lengths to which ,i was prepared to carry the principle4 ,the arguments1 or assertions1 which they generally employ against this second proposition and its consequences1 are the following3 ,first4 ,that the true nobility of architecture consists1 not in decoration 7or sculpture71 but in the disposition of masses1 and that architecture is1 in fact1 the art of proportion4 #fc4 ,it is difficult to overstate the enormity of the ignorance which this popular statement implies4 ,for the fact is1 that all art1 and all nature1 depend on the disposition of masses4 ,painting1 sculpture1 music1 and poetry depend all equally on the proportion1 whether of colors1 stones1 notes1 or words4 ,proportion is a principle1 not of architecture1 but of existence4 ,it is by the laws of proportion that stars shine1 that mountains stand1 and rivers flow4 ,man can hardly perform any act of his life1 can hardly utter two words of innocent speech1 or move his hand in accordance with those words1 without involving some reference1 whether taught or instinctive1 to the laws of proportion4 ,and in the fine arts1 it is impossible to move a single step1 or to execute the smallest and simplest piece of work1 without involving all those laws of proportion in their full complexity4 ,to arrange 7by invention7 the folds of a piece of drapery1 or dispose the locks of hair on the head of a statue1 requires as much sense and knowledge of the laws of proportion1 as to dispose the masses of a cathedral4 ,the one are indeed smaller than the other1 but the relations between #a1 #b1 #d1 and #h1 are precisely the same as the relations between #f1 #ab1 #bd1 and #dh4 ,so that the assertion that architecture is par excellence the art of proportion1 could never be made except by persons who know nothing of art in general2 and1 in fact1 never is made except by those architects1 who1 not being artists1 fancy that the one poor aesthetic principle of which they are cognizant is the whole of art4 ,they find that the disposition of masses is the only thing of importance in the art with which they are acquainted1 and fancy therefore that it is peculiar to that art2 whereas the fact is1 that all great art begins exactly where theirs ends1 with the disposition of masses4 ,the assertion that ,greek architecture1 as opposed to ,gothic architecture1 is the architecture of proportion1 is another of the results of the same broad ignorance4 ,first1 it is a calumny of the old ,greek style itself1 which1 like every other good architecture that ever existed1 depends more on its grand figure sculpture1 than on its proportions of parts2 so that to copy the form of the ,parthenon without its friezes and frontal statuary1 is like copying the figure of a human being without its eyes and mouth2 and1 in the second place1 so far as modern ,pseudo-,greek work does depend on its proportions more than ,gothic work1 it does so1 not because it is better proportioned1 but because it has nothing but proportion to depend upon4 ,gesture is in like manner of more importance to a pantomime actor than to a tragedian1 not because his gesture is more refined1 but because he has no tongue4 ,and the proportions of our common ,greek work are important to it undoubtedly1 but not because they are or even can be more subtile than ,gothic proportion1 but because that work has no sculpture1 nor color1 nor imagination1 nor sacredness1 nor any other quality whatsoever in it1 but ratios of measures4 ,and it is difficult to express with sufficient force the absurdity of the supposition that there is more room for refinements of proportion in the relations of seven or eight equal pillars1 with the triangular end of a roof above them1 than between the shafts1 and buttresses1 and porches1 and pinnacles1 and vaultings1 and towers1 and all other doubly and trebly multiplied magnificences of membership which form the framework of a ,gothic temple4 #fd4 ,second reply4--,it is often said1 with some appearance of plausibility1 that ,i dwell in all my writings on little things and contemptible details2 and not on essential and large things4 ,now1 in the first place1 as soon as our architects become capable of doing and managing little and contemptible things1 it will be time to talk about larger ones2 at present ,i do not see that they can design so much as a niche or a bracket1 and therefore they need not as yet think about anything larger4 ,for although1 as both just now1 and always1 ,i have said1 there is as much science of arrangement needed in the designing of a small group of parts as of a large one1 yet assuredly designing the larger one is not the easier work of the two4 ,for the eye and mind can embrace the smaller object more completely1 and if the powers of conception are feeble1 they get embarrassed by the inferior members which fall within the divisions of the larger design4#ba ,so that1 of course1 the best way is to begin with the smaller features2 for most assuredly1 those who cannot design small things cannot design large ones2 and yet1 on the other hand1 whoever can design small things perfectly1 can design whatever he chooses4 ,the man who1 without copying1 and by his own true and original power1 can arrange a cluster of rose-leaves nobly1 can design anything4 ,he may fail from want of taste or feeling1 but not from want of power4 ,footnote #ba3 ,thus1 in speaking of ,pugin's designs1 ,i said1 ,expect no cathedrals of him2 but no one1 at present1 can design a better finial1 though he will never design even a finial perfectly4 ,but even this ,i said less with reference to powers of arrangement1 than to materials of fancy2 for many men have store enough to last them through a boss or a bracket1 but not to last them through a church front4 ,and the real reason why architects are so eager in protesting against my close examination of details1 is simply that they know they dare not meet me on that ground4 ,being1 as ,i have said1 in reality not architects1 but builders1 they can indeed raise a large building1 with copied ornaments1 which1 being huge and white1 they hope the public may pronounce handsome4 ,but they cannot design a cluster of oak-leaves--no1 nor a single human figure--no1 nor so much as a beast1 or a bird1 or a bird's nest6 ,let them first learn to invent as much as will fill a quatre-foil1 or point a pinnacle1 and then it will be time enough to reason with them on the principles of the sublime4 #fe4 ,but farther4 ,the things that ,i have dwelt upon in examining buildings1 though often their least parts1 are always in reality their principal parts4 ,that is the principal part of a building in which its mind is contained1 and that1 as ,i have just shown1 is its sculpture--and painting4 ,i do with a building as ,i do with a man1 watch the eye and the lips3 when they are bright and eloquent1 the form of the body is of little consequence4 ,whatever other objections have been made to this second proposition1 arise1 as far as ,i remember1 merely from a confusion of the idea of essentialness or primariness with the idea of nobleness4 ,the essential thing in a building1--its first virtue1--is that it be strongly built1 and fit for its uses4 ,the noblest thing in a building1 and its highest virtue1 is that it be nobly sculptured or painted4#bb ,footnote #bb3 ,of course ,i use the term painting as including every mode of applying color4 #ff4 ,one or two important corollaries yet remain to be stated4 ,it has just been said that to sacrifice the convenience of a building to its external appearance is a futility and absurdity1 and that convenience and stability are to be attained at the smallest cost4 ,but when that convenience has been attained1 the adding the noble characters of life by painting and sculpture1 is a work in which all possible cost may be wisely admitted4 ,there is great difficulty in fully explaining the various bearings of this proposition1 so as to do away with the chances of its being erroneously understood and applied4 ,for although1 in the first designing of the building1 nothing is to be admitted but what is wanted1 and no useless wings are to be added to balance useful ones1 yet in its ultimate designing1 when its sculpture and color become precious1 it may be that actual room is wanted to display them1 or richer symmetry wanted to deserve them2 and in such cases even a useless wall may be built to bear the sculpture1 as at ,san ,michele of ,lucca1 or a useless portion added to complete the cadences1 as at ,st4 ,mark's of ,venice1 or useless height admitted in order to increase the impressiveness1 as in nearly every noble building in the world4 ,but the right to do this is dependent upon the actual purpose of the building becoming no longer one of utility merely2 as the purpose of a cathedral is not so much to shelter the congregation as to awe them4 ,in such cases even some sacrifice of convenience may occasionally be admitted1 as in the case of certain forms of pillared churches4 ,but for the most part1 the great law is1 convenience first1 and then the noblest decoration possible2 and this is peculiarly the case in domestic buildings1 and such public ones as are constantly to be used for practical purposes4 #fg4 ,proposition #c;d4--,ornamentation should be visible4 ,the reader may imagine this to be an indisputable position2 but1 practically1 it is one of the last which modern architects are likely to admit2 for it involves much more than appears at first sight4 ,to render ornamentation1 with all its qualities1 clearly and entirely visible in its appointed place on the building1 requires a knowledge of effect and a power of design which few even of the best artists possess1 and which modern architects1 so far from possessing1 do not so much as comprehend the existence of4 ,but1 without dwelling on this highest manner of rendering ornament visible1 ,i desire only at present to convince the reader thoroughly of the main fact asserted in the text1 that while modern builders decorate the tops of buildings1 mediaeval builders decorated the bottom4 ,so singular is the ignorance yet prevailing of the first principles of ,gothic architecture1 that ,i saw this assertion marked with notes of interrogation in several of the reports of these ,lectures2 although1 at ,edinburgh1 it was only necessary for those who doubted it to have walked to ,holyrood ,chapel1 in order to convince themselves of the truth of it1 so far as their own city was concerned2 and although1 most assuredly1 the cathedrals of ,europe have now been drawn often enough to establish the very simple fact that their best sculpture is in their porches1 not in their steeples4 ,however1 as this great ,gothic principle seems yet unacknowledged1 let me state it here1 once for all1 namely1 that the whole building is decorated1 in all pure and fine examples1 with the most exactly studied respect to the powers of the eye2 the richest and most delicate sculpture being put on the walls of the porches1 or on the facade of the building1 just high enough above the ground to secure it from accidental 7not from wanton#bc7 injury4 ,the decoration1 as it rises1 becomes always bolder1 and in the buildings of the greatest times1 generally simpler4 ,thus at ,san ,zeno and the duomo of ,verona1 the only delicate decorations are on the porches and lower walls of the facades1 the rest of the buildings being left comparatively plain2 in the ducal palace of ,venice the only very careful work is in the lowest capitals2 and so also the richness of the work diminishes upwards in the transepts of ,rouen1 and facades of ,bayeux1 ,rheims1 ,amiens1 ,abbeville1#bd ,lyons1 and ,notre ,dame of ,paris4 ,but in the middle and later ,gothic the tendency is to produce an equal richness of effect over the whole building1 or even to increase the richness towards the top2 but this is done so skillfully that no fine work is wasted2 and when the spectator ascends to the higher points of the building1 which he thought were of the most consummate delicacy1 he finds them ,herculean in strength and rough-hewn in style1 the really delicate work being all put at the base4 ,the general treatment of ,romanesque work is to increase the number of arches at the top1 which at once enriches and lightens the mass1 and to put the finest sculpture of the arches at the bottom4 ,in towers of all kinds and periods the effective enrichment is towards the top1 and most rightly1 since their dignity is in their height2 but they are never made the recipients of fine sculpture1 with1 as far as ,i know1 the single exception of ,giotto's campanile1 which indeed has fine sculpture1 but it is at the bottom4 ,footnote #bc3 ,nothing is more notable in good ,gothic than the confidence of its builders in the respect of the people for their work4 ,a great school of architecture cannot exist when this respect cannot be calculated upon1 as it would be vain to put fine sculpture within the reach of a population whose only pleasure would be in defacing it4 ,footnote #bd3 ,the church to ,abbeville is late flamboyant1 but well deserves1 for the exquisite beauty of its porches1 to be named even with the great works of the thirteenth century4 ,the facade of ,wells ,cathedral seems to be an exception to the general rule1 in having its principal decoration at the top2 but it is on a scale of perfect power and effectiveness2 while in the base modern ,gothic of ,milan ,cathedral the statues are cut delicately everywhere1 and the builders think it a merit that the visitor must climb to the roof before he can see them2 and our modern ,greek and ,italian architecture reaches the utmost pitch of absurdity by placing its fine work at the top only4 ,so that the general condition of the thing may be stated boldly1 as in the text2 the principal ornaments of ,gothic buildings being in their porches1 and of modern buildings1 in their parapets4 #fh4 ,proposition #dth4--,ornamentation should be natural1--that is to say1 should in some degree express or adopt the beauty of natural objects4 ,this law1 together with its ultimate reason1 is expressed in the statement given in the ,stones of ,venice1 vol4 i4 p4 #baa3 ,all noble ornament is the expression of man's delight in ,god's work4 ,observe1 it does not hence follow that it should be an exact imitation of1 or endeavor in anywise to supersede1 ,god's work4 ,it may consist only in a partial adoption of1 and compliance with1 the usual forms of natural things1 without at all going to the point of imitation2 and it is possible that the point of imitation may be closely reached by ornaments1 which nevertheless are entirely unfit for their place1 and are the signs only of a degraded ambition and an ignorant dexterity4 ,bad decorators err as easily on the side of imitating nature1 as of forgetting her2 and the question of the exact degree in which imitation should be attempted under given circumstances1 is one of the most subtle and difficult in the whole range of criticism4 ,i have elsewhere examined it at some length1 and have yet much to say about it2 but here ,i can only state briefly that the modes in which ornamentation ought to fall short of pure representation or imitation are in the main three1 namely3-- ,a4 ,conventionalism by cause of color4 ,b4 ,conventionalism by cause of inferiority4 ,c4 ,conventionalism by cause of means4 #fi4 ,a4 ,conventionalism by cause of color4--,abstract color is not an imitation of nature1 but is nature itself2 that is to say1 the pleasure taken in blue or red1 as such1 considered as hues merely1 is the same1 so long as the brilliancy of the hue is equal1 whether it be produced by the chemistry of man1 or the chemistry of flowers1 or the chemistry of skies4 ,we deal with color as with sound--so far ruling the power of the light1 as we rule the power of the air1 producing beauty not necessarily imitative1 but sufficient in itself1 so that1 wherever color is introduced1 ornamentation may cease to represent natural objects1 and may consist in mere spots1 or bands1 or flamings1 or any other condition of arrangement favorable to the color4 #gj4 ,b4 ,conventionalism by cause of inferiority4--,in general1 ornamentation is set upon certain services1 subjected to certain systems1 and confined within certain limits2 so that its forms require to be lowered or limited in accordance with the required relations4 ,it cannot be allowed to assume the free outlines1 or to rise to the perfection of imitation4 ,whole banks of flowers1 for instance1 cannot be carved on cathedral fronts1 but only narrow moldings1 having some of the characters of banks of flowers4 ,also1 some ornaments require to be subdued in value1 that they may not interfere with the effect of others2 and all these necessary inferiorities are attained by means of departing from natural forms--it being an established law of human admiration that what is most representative of nature shall1 caeteris paribus1 be most attractive4 ,all the various kinds of ornamentation1 consisting of spots1 points1 twisted bands1 abstract curves1 and other such1 owe their peculiar character to this conventionalism by cause of inferiority4 #ga4 ,c4 ,conventionalism by cause of means4--,in every branch of art1 only so much imitation of nature is to be admitted as is consistent with the ease of the workman and the capacities of the material4 ,whatever shortcomings are appointed 7for they are more than permitted1 they are in such cases appointed1 and meritorious7 on account of the untractableness of the material1 come under the head of conventionalism by cause of means4 ,these conventionalities1 then1 being duly understood and accepted1 in modification of the general law1 that law will be1 that the glory of all ornamentation consists in the adoption or imitation of the beauties of natural objects1 and that no work can be of high value which is not full of this beauty4 ,to this fourth proposition1 modern architects have not ventured to make any serious resistance4 ,on the contrary1 they seem to be1 little by little1 gliding into an obscure perception of the fact1 that architecture1 in most periods of the world1 had sculpture upon it1 and that the said sculpture generally did represent something intelligible4 ,for instance1 we find ,mr4 ,huggins1 of ,liverpool1 lately lecturing upon architecture in its relations to nature and the intellect1#be and gravely informing his hearers1 that in the ,middle ,ages angels were human figures2 that some of the richest ornaments of ,solomon's temple were imitated from the palm and pomegranate1 and that the ,greeks followed the example of the ,egyptians in selecting their ornaments from the plants of their own country4 ,it is to be presumed that the lecturer has never been in the ,elgin or ,egyptian room of the ,british ,museum1 or it might have occurred to him that the ,egyptians and ,greeks sometimes also selected their ornaments from the men of their own country4 ,but we must not expect too much illumination at once2 and as we are told that1 in conclusion1 ,mr4 ,huggins glanced at the error of architects in neglecting the fountain of wisdom thus open to them in nature1 we may expect in due time large results from the discovery of a source of wisdom so unimagined4 ,footnote #be3 ,see ,the ,builder1 for ,january #ab1 #ahed4 #gb4 ,proposition #eth4--,ornamentation should be thoughtful4 ,that is to say1 whenever you put a chisel or a pencil into a man's hand for the purpose of enabling him to produce beauty1 you are to expect of him that he will think about what he is doing1 and feel something about it1 and that the expression of this thought or feeling will be the most noble quality in what he produces with his chisel or brush1 inasmuch as the power of thinking and feeling is the most noble thing in the man4 ,it will hence follow that as men do not commonly think the same thoughts twice1 you are not to require of them that they shall do the same thing twice4 ,you are to expect another and a different thought of them1 as soon as one thought has been well expressed4 #gc4 ,hence1 therefore1 it follows also that all noble ornamentation is perpetually varied ornamentation1 and that the moment you find ornamentation unchanging1 you may know that it is of a degraded kind or degraded school4 ,to this law1 the only exceptions arise out of the uses of monotony1 as a contrast to change4 ,many subordinate architectural moldings are severely alike in their various parts 7though never unless they are thoroughly subordinate1 for monotony is always deathful according to the degree of it71 in order to set off change in others2 and a certain monotony or similarity must be introduced among the most changeful ornaments in order to enhance and exhibit their own changes4 ,the truth of this proposition is self-evident2 for no art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought1 and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change4 ,to require of an artist that he should always reproduce the same picture1 would be not one whit more base than to require of a carver that he should always reproduce the same sculpture4 ,the principle is perfectly clear and altogether incontrovertible4 ,apply it to modern ,greek architecture1 and that architecture must cease to exist2 for it depends absolutely on copyism4 #gd4 ,the sixth proposition above stated1 that ,gothic ornamentation is nobler than ,greek ornamentation1 etc41 is therefore sufficiently proved by the acceptance of this one principle1 no less important than unassailable4 ,of all that ,i have to bring forward respecting architecture1 this is the one ,i have most at heart2 for on the acceptance of this depends the determination whether the workman shall be a living1 progressive1 and happy human being1 or whether he shall be a mere machine1 with its valves smoothed by heart's blood instead of oil1--the most pitiable form of slave4 ,and it is with especial reference to the denial of this principle in modern and ,renaissance architecture1 that ,i speak of that architecture with a bitterness which appears to many readers extreme1 while in reality1 so far from exaggerating1 ,i have not grasp enough of thought to embrace1 the evils which have resulted among all the orders of ,european society from the introduction of the ,renaissance schools of building1 in turning away the eyes of the beholder from natural beauty1 and reducing the workman to the level of a machine4 ,in the ,gothic times1 writing1 painting1 carving1 casting1--it mattered not what1--were all works done by thoughtful and happy men2 and the illumination of the volume1 and the carving and casting of wall and gate1 employed1 not thousands1 but millions1 of true and noble artists over all ,christian lands4 ,men in the same position are now left utterly without intellectual power or pursuit1 and1 being unhappy in their work1 they rebel against it3 hence one of the worst forms of ,unchristian ,socialism4 ,so again1 there being now no nature or variety in architecture1 the multitude are not interested in it2 therefore1 for the present1 they have lost their taste for art altogether1 so that you can no longer trust sculpture within their reach4 ,consider the innumerable forms of evil involved in the temper and taste of the existing populace of ,london or ,paris1 as compared with the temper of the populace of ,florence1 when the quarter of ,santa ,maria ,novella received its title of ,joyful ,quarter1 from the rejoicings of the multitude at getting a new picture into their church1 better than the old ones2--all this difference being exclusively chargeable on the ,renaissance architecture4 ,and then1 farther1 if we remember1 not only the revolutionary ravage of sacred architecture1 but the immeasurably greater destruction effected by the ,renaissance builders and their satellites1 wherever they came1 destruction so wide-spread that there is not a town in ,france or ,italy but it has to deplore the deliberate overthrow of more than half its noblest monuments1 in order to put up ,greek porticoes or palaces in their stead2 adding also all the blame of the ignorance of the meaner kind of men1 operating in thousands of miserable abuses upon the frescoes1 books1 and pictures1 as the architects' hammers did on the carved work1 of the ,middle ,ages2#bf and1 finally1 if we examine the influence which the luxury1 and1 still more1 the heathenism1 joined with the essential dullness of these schools1 have had on the upper class of society1 it will ultimately be found that no expressions are energetic enough to describe1 nor broad enough to embrace1 the enormous moral evils which have risen from them4 ,footnote #bf3 ,nothing appears to me much more wonderful1 than the remorseless way in which the educated ignorance1 even of the present day1 will sweep away an ancient monument1 if its preservation be not absolutely consistent with immediate convenience or economy4 ,putting aside all antiquarian considerations1 and all artistical ones1 ,i wish that people would only consider the steps and the weight of the following very simple argument4 ,you allow it is wrong to waste time1 that is1 your own time2 but then it must be still more wrong to waste other people's2 for you have some right to your own time1 but none to theirs4 ,well1 then1 if it is thus wrong to waste the time of the living1 it must be still more wrong to waste the time of the dead2 for the living can redeem their time1 the dead cannot4 ,but you waste the best of the time of the dead when you destroy the works they have left you2 for to those works they gave the best of their time1 intending them for immortality4 #ge4 ,i omitted1 in preparing the preceding lecture for the press1 a passage referring to this subject1 because it appeared to me1 in its place1 hardly explained by preceding statements4 ,but ,i give it here unaltered1 as being1 in sober earnest1 but too weak to characterize the tendencies of the accursed architecture of which it speaks4 ,accursed1 ,i call it1 with deliberate purpose4 ,it needed but the gathering up of a ,babylonish garment to trouble ,israel2--these marble garments of the ancient idols of the ,gentiles1 how many have they troubled6 ,gathered out of their ruins by the second ,babylon1--gathered by the ,papal ,church in the extremity of her sin2--raised up by her1 not when she was sending forth her champions to preach in the highway1 and pine in the desert1 and perish in the fire1 but in the very scarlet fruitage and fullness of her guilt1 when her priests vested themselves not with purple only1 but with blood1 and bade the cups of their feasting foam not with wine only1 but with hemlock2--raised by the hands of the ,leos and the ,borgias1 raised first into that mighty temple where the seven hills slope to the ,tiber1 that marks by its massy dome the central spot1 where ,rome has reversed the words of ,christ1 and1 as ,he vivified the stone to the apostleship1 she petrifies the apostleship into the stumbling stone2--exalted there first as if to mark what work it had to do1 it went forth to paralyze or to pollute1 and wherever it came1 the luster faded from the streets of our cities1 the gray towers and glorious arches of our abbeys fell by the river sides1 the love of nature was uprooted from the hearts of men1 base luxuries and cruel formalisms were festered and frozen into them from their youth2 and at last1 where1 from his fair ,gothic chapel beside the ,seine1 the king ,st4 ,louis had gone forth1 followed by his thousands in the cause of ,christ1 another king was dragged forth from the gates of his ,renaissance palace1#bg to die1 by the hands of the thousands of his people gathered in another crusade2 or what shall that be called--whose sign was not the cross1 but the guillotine8 ,footnote #bg3 ,the character of ,renaissance architecture1 and the spirit which dictated its adoption1 may be remembered as having been centered and symbolized in the palace of ,versailles2 whose site was chosen by ,louis the ,fourteenth1 in order that from thence he might not see ,st4 ,denis1 the burial-place of his family4 ,the cost of the palace in twenty-seven years is stated in ,the ,builder1 for ,march #ahth1 #ahed1 to have been ,l#c1bdf1jjj money of that period1 equal to about seven millions now 7,l#ijj1jjj having been expended in the year #afhf alone74 ,the building is thus notably illustrative of the two feelings which were stated in the ,stones of ,venice1 to be peculiarly characteristic of the ,renaissance spirit1 the ,pride of ,state and ,fear of ,death4 ,compare the horror of ,louis the ,fourteenth at the sight of the tower of ,st4 ,denis1 with the feeling which prompted the ,scaligeri at ,verona to set their tombs within fifteen feet of their palace walls4 #gf4 ,i have not space here to pursue the subject farther1 nor shall ,i be able to write anything more respecting architecture for some time to come4 ,but in the meanwhile1 ,i would most earnestly desire to leave with the reader this one subject of thought--,the ,life of the ,workman4 ,for it is singular1 and far more than singular1 that among all the writers who have attempted to examine the principles stated in the ,stones of ,venice1 not one#bh has as yet made a single comment on what was precisely and accurately the most important chapter in the whole book2 namely1 the description of the nature of ,gothic architecture1 as involving the liberty of the workman 7vol4 ii4 ch4 vi474 ,i had hoped that whatever might be the prejudices of modern architects1 there would have been found some among them quicksighted enough to see the bearings of this principle1 and generous enough to support it4 ,there has hitherto stood forward not one4 ,footnote #bh3 ,an article in ,fraser's ,magazine1 which has appeared since these sheets were sent to press1 forms a solitary exception4 ,but my purpose must at last be accomplished for all this4 ,the laborer among the gravestones of our modern architecture must yet be raised up1 and become a living soul4 ,before he can be thus raised1 the whole system of ,greek architecture1 as practiced in the present day1 must be annihilated2 but it will be annihilated1 and that speedily4 ,for truth and judgment are its declared opposites1 and against these nothing ever finally prevailed1 or shall prevail4 ,,lecture ,,iii4 ,,turner ,,and ,,his ,,works4 ,delivered ,november #ae1 #ahec4 #gg4 ,my object this evening is not so much to give you any account of the works or the genius of the great painter whom we have so lately lost 7which it would require rather a year than an hour to do71 as to give you some idea of the position which his works hold with respect to the landscape of other periods1 and of the general condition and prospects of the landscape art of the present day4 ,i will not lose time in prefatory remarks1 as ,i have little enough at any rate1 but will enter abruptly on my subject4 #gh4 ,you are all of you well aware that landscape seems hardly to have exercised any strong influence1 as such1 on any pagan nation or pagan artist4 ,i have no time to enter into any details on this1 of course1 most intricate and difficult subject2 but ,i will only ask you to observe1 that wherever natural scenery is alluded to by the ancients1 it is either agriculturally1 with the kind of feeling that a good ,scotch farmer has2 sensually1 in the enjoyment of sun or shade1 cool winds or sweet scents2 fearfully1 in a mere vulgar dread of rocks and desolate places1 as compared with the comfort of cities2 or1 finally1 superstitiously1 in the personification or deification of natural powers1 generally with much degradation of their impressiveness1 as in the paltry fables of ,ulysses receiving the winds in bags from ,a,eolus1 and of the ,cyclops hammering lightning sharp at the ends1 on an anvil4#bi ,of course1 you will here and there find feeble evidences of a higher sensibility1 chiefly1 ,i think1 in ,plato1 ,a,eschylus1 ,aristophanes1 and ,virgil4 ,homer1 though in the epithets he applies to landscape always thoroughly graphic1 uses the same epithet for rocks1 seas1 and trees1 from one end of his poem to the other1 evidently without the smallest interest in anything of the kind2 and in the mass of heathen writers1 the absence of sensation on these subjects is singularly painful4 ,for instance1 in that1 to my mind1 most disgusting of all so-called poems1 the ,journey to ,brundusium1 you remember that ,horace takes exactly as much interest in the scenery he is passing through as ,sancho ,panza would have done4 ,footnote #bi3 ,of course ,i do not mean by calling these fables paltry1 to dispute their neatness1 ingenuity1 or moral depth2 but only their want of apprehension of the extent and awfulness of the phenomena introduced4 ,so also1 in denying ,homer's interest in nature1 ,i do not mean to deny his accuracy of observation1 or his power of seizing on the main points of landscape1 but ,i deny the power of landscape over his heart1 unless when closely associated with1 and altogether subordinate to1 some human interest4 #gi4 ,you will find1 on the other hand1 that the language of the ,bible is specifically distinguished from all other early literature1 by its delight in natural imagery2 and that the dealings of ,god with ,his people are calculated peculiarly to awaken this sensibility within them4 ,out of the monotonous valley of ,egypt they are instantly taken into the midst of the mightiest mountain scenery in the peninsula of ,arabia2 and that scenery is associated in their minds with the immediate manifestation and presence of the ,divine ,power2 so that mountains forever afterwards become invested with a peculiar sacredness in their minds3 while their descendants being placed in what was then one of the loveliest districts upon the earth1 full of glorious vegetation1 bounded on one side by the sea1 on the north by that goodly mountain ,lebanon1 on the south and east by deserts1 whose barrenness enhanced by their contrast the sense of the perfection of beauty in their own land1 they became1 by these means1 and by the touch of ,god's own hand upon their hearts1 sensible to the appeal of natural scenery in a way in which no other people were at the time4 ,and their literature is full of expressions1 not only testifying a vivid sense of the power of nature over man1 but showing that sympathy with natural things themselves1 as if they had human souls1 which is the especial characteristic of true love of the works of ,god4 ,i intended to have insisted on this sympathy at greater length1 but ,i found1 only two or three days ago1 much of what ,i had to say to you anticipated in a little book1 unpretending1 but full of interest1 ,the ,lamp and the ,lantern1 by ,dr4 ,james ,hamilton2 and ,i will therefore only ask you to consider such expressions as that tender and glorious verse in ,isaiah1 speaking of the cedars on the mountains as rejoicing over the fall of the king of ,assyria3 ,yea1 the fir trees rejoice at thee1 and the cedars of ,lebanon1 saying1 ,since thou art gone down to the grave1 no feller is come up against us4 ,see what sympathy there is here1 as if with the very hearts of the trees themselves4 ,so also in the words of ,christ1 in ,his personification of the lilies3 ,they toil not1 neither do they spin4 ,consider such expressions as1 ,the sea saw that1 and fled4 ,jordan was driven back4 ,the mountains skipped like rams2 and the little hills like lambs4 ,try to find anything in profane writing like this2 and note farther that the whole book of ,job appears to have been chiefly written and placed in the inspired volume in order to show the value of natural history1 and its power on the human heart4 ,i cannot pass by it without pointing out the evidences of the beauty of the country that ,job inhabited4#cj ,observe1 first1 it was an arable country4 ,the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them4 ,it was a pastoral country3 his substance1 besides camels and asses1 was #g1jjj sheep4 ,it was a mountain country1 fed by streams descending from the high snows4 ,my brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook1 and as the stream of brooks they pass away2 which are blackish by reason of the ice1 and wherein the snow is hid3 ,what time they wax warm they vanish3 when it is hot they are consumed out of their place4 ,again3 ,if ,i wash myself with snow water1 and make my hands never so clean4 ,again3 ,drought and heat consume the snow waters4 ,it was a rocky country1 with forests and verdure rooted in the rocks4 ,his branch shooteth forth in his garden2 his roots are wrapped about the heap1 and seeth the place of stones4 ,again3 ,thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field4 ,it was a place visited1 like the valleys of ,switzerland1 by convulsions and falls of mountains4 ,surely the mountain falling cometh to nought1 and the rock is removed out of his place4 ,the waters wear the stones2 thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth4 ,he removeth the mountains and they know not3 he overturneth them in his anger4 ,he putteth forth his hand upon the rock3 he overturneth the mountains by the roots3 he cutteth out rivers among the rocks4 ,i have not time to go farther into this2 but you see ,job's country was one like your own1 full of pleasant brooks and rivers1 rushing among the rocks1 and of all other sweet and noble elements of landscape4 ,the magnificent allusions to natural scenery throughout the book are therefore calculated to touch the heart to the end of time4 ,footnote #cj3 ,this passage1 respecting the book of ,job1 was omitted in the delivery of the ,lecture1 for want of time4 #hj4 ,then at the central point of ,jewish prosperity1 you have the first great naturalist the world ever saw1 ,solomon2 not permitted1 indeed1 to anticipate1 in writing1 the discoveries of modern times1 but so gifted as to show us that heavenly wisdom is manifested as much in the knowledge of the hyssop that springeth out of the wall as in political and philosophical speculation4 ,the books of the ,old ,testament1 as distinguished from all other early writings1 are thus prepared for an everlasting influence over humanity2 and1 finally1 ,christ himself1 setting the concluding example to the conduct and thoughts of men1 spends nearly ,his whole life in the fields1 the mountains1 or the small country villages of ,judea2 and in the very closing scenes of ,his life1 will not so much as sleep within the walls of ,jerusalem1 but rests at the little village of ,bethphage1 walking in the morning1 and returning in the evening1 through the peaceful avenues of the ,mount of ,olives1 to and from ,his work of teaching in the temple4 #ha4 ,it would thus naturally follow1 both from the general tone and teaching of the ,scriptures1 and from the example of our ,lord himself1 that wherever ,christianity was preached and accepted1 there would be an immediate interest awakened in the works of ,god1 as seen in the natural world3 and1 accordingly1 this is the second universal and distinctive character of ,christian art1 as distinguished from all pagan work2 the first being a peculiar spirituality in its conception of the human form1 preferring holiness of expression and strength of character1 to beauty of features or of body2 and the second1 as ,i say1 its intense fondness for natural objects--animals1 leaves1 and flowers1--inducing an immediate transformation of the cold and lifeless pagan ornamentation into vivid imagery of nature4 ,of course this manifestation of feeling was at first checked by the circumstances under which the ,christian religion was disseminated4 ,the art of the first three centuries is entirely subordinate1--restrained partly by persecution1 partly by a high spirituality1 which cared much more about preaching than painting2 and then when1 under ,constantine1 ,christianity became the religion of the ,roman empire1 myriads of persons gave the aid of their wealth and of their art to the new religion1 who were ,christians in nothing but the name1 and who decorated a ,christian temple just as they would have decorated a pagan one1 merely because the new religion had become ,imperial4 ,then1 just as the new art was beginning to assume a distinctive form1 down came the northern barbarians upon it2 and all their superstitions had to be leavened with it1 and all their hard hands and hearts softened by it1 before their art could appear in anything like a characteristic form4 ,the warfare in which ,europe was perpetually plunged retarded this development for ages2 but it steadily and gradually prevailed1 working from the eighth to the eleventh century like a seed in the ground1 showing little signs of life1 but still1 if carefully examined1 changing essentially every day and every hour3 at last1 in the twelfth century the blade appears above the black earth2 in the thirteenth1 the plant is in full leaf4 #hb4 ,i begin1 then1 with the thirteenth century1 and must now make to you a general assertion1 which1 if you will note down and examine at your leisure1 you will find true and useful1 though ,i have not time at present to give you full demonstration of it4 ,i say1 then1 that the art of the thirteenth century is the foundation of all art--nor merely the foundation1 but the root of it2 that is to say1 succeeding art is not merely built upon it1 but was all comprehended in it1 and is developed out of it4 ,passing this great century1 we find three successive branches developed from it1 in each of the three following centuries4 ,the fourteenth century is pre-eminently the age of ,thought1 the fifteenth the age of ,drawing1 and the sixteenth the age of ,painting4 #hc4 ,observe1 first1 the fourteenth century is pre-eminently the age of thought4 ,it begins with the first words of the poem of ,dante2 and all the great pictorial poems--the mighty series of works in which everything is done to relate1 but nothing to imitate--belong to this century4 ,i should only confuse you by giving you the names of marvelous artists1 most of them little familiar to ,british ears1 who adorned this century in ,italy2 but you will easily remember it as the age of ,dante and ,giotto--the age of ,thought4 ,the men of the succeeding century 7the fifteenth7 felt that they could not rival their predecessors in invention1 but might excel them in execution4 ,original thoughts belonging to this century are comparatively rare2 even ,raphael and ,michael ,angelo themselves borrowed all their principal ideas and plans of pictures from their predecessors2 but they executed them with a precision up to that time unseen4 ,you must understand by the word drawing1 the perfect rendering of forms1 whether in sculpture or painting2 and then remember the fifteenth century as the age of ,leonardo1 ,michael ,angelo1 ,lorenzo ,ghiberti1 and ,raphael--pre-eminently the age of ,drawing4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,xiii4 7,fig4 #bj41 ,fig4 #ba47 ,the sixteenth century produced the four greatest ,painters1 that is to say1 managers of color1 whom the world has seen2 namely1 ,tintoret1 ,paul ,veronese1 ,titian1 and ,correggio4 ,i need not say more to justify my calling it the age of ,painting4 #hd4 ,this1 then1 being the state of things respecting art in general1 let us next trace the career of landscape through these centuries4 ,it was only towards the close of the thirteenth century that figure painting began to assume so perfect a condition as to require some elaborate suggestion of landscape background4 ,up to that time1 if any natural object had to be represented1 it was done in an entirely conventional way1 as you see it upon ,greek vases1 or in a ,chinese porcelain pattern2 an independent tree or flower being set upon the white ground1 or ground of any color1 wherever there was a vacant space for it1 without the smallest attempt to imitate the real colors and relations of the earth and sky about it4 ,but at the close of the thirteenth century1 ,giotto1 and in the course of the fourteenth1 ,orcagna1 sought1 for the first time1 to give some resemblance to nature in their backgrounds1 and introduced behind their figures pieces of true landscape1 formal enough still1 but complete in intention1 having foregrounds and distances1 sky and water1 forests and mountains1 carefully delineated1 not exactly in their true color1 but yet in color approximating to the truth4 ,the system which they introduced 7for though in many points enriched above the work of earlier ages1 the ,orcagna and ,giotto landscape was a very complete piece of recipe7 was observed for a long period by their pupils1 and may be thus briefly described3--,the sky is always pure blue1 paler at the horizon1 and with a few streaky white clouds in it1 the ground is green even to the extreme distance1 with brown rocks projecting from it2 water is blue streaked with white4 ,the trees are nearly always composed of clusters of their proper leaves relieved on a black or dark ground1 thus 7fig4 #bj74ca ,and observe carefully1 with respect to the complete drawing of the leaves on this tree1 and the smallness of their number1 the real distinction between noble conventionalism and false conventionalism4 ,you will often hear modern architects defending their monstrous ornamentation on the ground that it is conventional1 and that architectural ornament ought to be conventionalized4 ,remember1 when you hear this1 that noble conventionalism is not an agreement between the artist and spectator that the one shall misrepresent nature sixty times over1 and the other believe the misrepresentation sixty times over1 but it is an agreement that certain means and limitations being prescribed1 only that kind of truth is to be expected which is consistent with those means4 ,for instance1 if ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds had been talking to a friend about the character of a face1 and there had been nothing in the room but a deal table and an inkbottle--and no pens--,sir ,joshua would have dipped his finger in the ink1 and painted a portrait on the table with his finger1 and a noble portrait too2 certainly not delicate in outline1 nor representing any of the qualities of the face dependent on rich outline1 but getting as much of the face as in that manner was attainable4 ,that is noble conventionalism1 and ,egyptian work on granite1 or illuminator's work in glass1 is all conventional in the same sense1 but not conventionally false4 ,the two noblest and truest carved lions ,i have ever seen1 are the two granite ones in the ,egyptian room of the ,british ,museum1 and yet in them1 the lions' manes and beards are represented by rings of solid rock1 as smooth as a mirror6 ,footnote #ca3 ,having no memoranda of my own1 taken from ,giotto's landscape1 ,i had this tree copied from an engraving2 but ,i imagine the rude termination of the stems to be a misrepresentation4 ,fig4 #ba is accurately copied from a ,,ms41 certainly executed between #abej and #abgj1 and is more truly characteristic of the early manner4 #he4 ,there are indeed one or two other conditions of noble conventionalism1 notice more fully in the ,addenda 7,sec4,sec4 #fh-ga72 but you will find that they always consist in stopping short of nature1 not in falsifying nature2 and thus in ,giotto's foliage1 he stops short of the quantity of leaves on the real tree1 but he gives you the form of the leaves represented with perfect truth4 ,his foreground also is nearly always occupied by flowers and herbage1 carefully and individually painted from nature2 while1 although thus simple in plan1 the arrangements of line in these landscapes of course show the influence of the master-mind1 and sometimes1 where the story requires it1 we find the usual formulae overleaped1 and ,giotto at ,avignon painting the breakers of the sea on a steep shore with great care1 while ,orcagna1 in his ,triumph of ,death1 has painted a thicket of brambles mixed with teazles1 in a manner worthy of the best days of landscape art4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,xiv4 7,fig4 #bb47 #hf4 ,now from the landscape of these two men to the landscape of ,raphael1 ,leonardo1 and ,perugino1 the advance consists principally in two great steps3 ,the first1 that distant objects were more or less invested with a blue color1--the second1 that trees were no longer painted with a black ground1 but with a rich dark brown1 or deep green4 ,from ,giotto's old age1 to the youth of ,raphael1 the advance in1 and knowledge of1 landscape1 consisted of no more than these two simple steps2 but the execution of landscape became infinitely more perfect and elaborate4 ,all the flowers and leaves in the foreground were worked out with the same perfection as the features of the figures2 in the middle distance the brown trees were most delicately defined against the sky2 the blue mountains in the extreme distance were exquisitely thrown into aerial gradations1 and the sky and clouds were perfect in transparency and softness4 ,but still there is no real advance in knowledge of natural objects4 ,the leaves and flowers are1 indeed1 admirably painted1 and thrown into various intricate groupings1 such as ,giotto could not have attempted1 but the rocks and water are still as conventional and imperfect as ever1 except only in color3 the forms of rock in ,leonardo's celebrated ,vierge aux ,rochers are literally no better than those on a china plate4 ,fig4 #bb shows a portion of them in mere outline1 with one cluster of the leaves above1 and the distant ideal mountains4 ,on the whole1 the most satisfactory work of the period is that which most resembles missal painting1 that is to say1 which is fullest of beautiful flowers and animals scattered among the landscape1 in the old independent way1 like the birds upon a screen4 ,the landscape of ,benozzo ,gozzoli is exquisitely rich in incident of this kind4 #hg4 ,the first man who entirely broke through the conventionality of his time1 and painted pure landscape1 was ,masaccio1 but he died too young to effect the revolution of which his genius was capable4 ,it was left for other men to accomplish1 namely1 for ,correggio and ,titian4 ,these two painters were the first who relieved the foregrounds of their landscape from the grotesque1 quaint1 and crowded formalism of the early painters2 and gave a close approximation to the forms of nature in all things2 retaining1 however1 thus much of the old system1 that the distances were for the most part painted in deep ultramarine blue1 the foregrounds in rich green and brown2 there were no effects of sunshine and shadow1 but a generally quiet glow over the whole scene2 and the clouds1 though now rolling in irregular masses1 and sometimes richly involved among the hills1 were never varied in conception1 or studied from nature4 ,there were no changes of weather in them1 no rain clouds or fair-weather clouds1 nothing but various shapes of the cumulus or cirrus1 introduced for the sake of light on the deep blue sky4 ,tintoret and ,bonifazio introduced more natural effects into this monotonous landscape3 in their works we meet with showers of rain1 with rainbows1 sunsets1 bright reflections in water1 and so on2 but still very subordinate1 and carelessly worked out1 so as not to justify us in considering their landscape as forming a class by itself4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,xv4 7,fig4 #bc47 #hh4 ,fig4 #bc1 which is a branch of a tree from the background of ,titian's ,st4 ,jerome1 at ,milan1 compared with fig4 #bj1 will give you a distinct idea of the kind of change which took place from the time of ,giotto to that of ,titian1 and you will find that this whole range of landscape may be conveniently classed in three divisions1 namely1 ,giottesque1 ,leonardesque1 and ,titianesque2 the ,giottesque embracing nearly all the work of the fourteenth1 the ,leonardesque that of the fifteenth1 and the ,titianesque that of the sixteenth century4 ,now you see there remained a fourth step to be taken1--the doing away with conventionalism altogether1 so as to create the perfect art of landscape painting4 ,the course of the mind of ,europe was to do this2 but at the very moment when it ought to have been done1 the art of all civilized nations was paralyzed at once by the operation of the poisonous elements of infidelity and classical learning together1 as ,i have endeavored to show elsewhere4 ,in this paralysis1 like a soldier shot as he is just gaining an eminence1 the art of the seventeenth century struggled forward1 and sank upon the spot it had been endeavoring to attain4 ,the step which should have freed landscape from conventionalism was actually taken by ,claude and ,salvator ,rosa1 but taken in a state of palsy1--taken so as to lose far more than was gained4 ,for up to this time1 no painter ever had thought of drawing anything1 pebble or blade of grass1 or tree or mountain1 but as well and distinctly as he could2 and if he could not draw it completely1 he drew it at least in a way which should thoroughly show his knowledge and feeling of it4 ,for instance1 you saw in the oak tree of the ,giottesque period1 that the main points of the tree1 the true shape of leaf and acorn1 were all there1 perfectly and carefully articulated1 and so they continued to be down to the time of ,tintoret2 both he and ,titian working out the separate leaves of their foliage with the most exquisite botanical care4 ,but now observe3 as ,christianity had brought this love of nature into ,paganism1 the return of ,paganism in the shape of classical learning at once destroyed this love of nature2 and at the moment when ,claude and ,salvator made the final effort to paint the effects of nature faithfully1 the objects of nature had ceased to be regarded with affection2 so that1 while people were amused and interested by the new effects of sunsets over green seas1 and of tempests bursting on rocky mountains1 which were introduced by the rising school1 they entirely ceased to require on the one side1 or bestow on the other1 that care and thought by which alone the beauty of nature can be understood4 ,the older painting had resembled a careful and deeply studied diagram1 illustrative of the most important facts2 it was not to be understood or relished without application of serious thought2 on the contrary1 it developed and addressed the highest powers of mind belonging to the human race2 while the ,claude and ,salvator painting was like a scene in a theater1 viciously and falsely painted throughout1 and presenting a deceptive appearance of truth to nature2 understood1 as far as it went1 in a moment1 but conveying no accurate knowledge of anything1 and1 in all its operations on the mind1 unhealthy1 hopeless1 and profitless4 #hi4 ,it was1 however1 received with avidity2 for this main reason1 that the architecture1 domestic life1 and manners of the period were gradually getting more and more artificial2 as ,i showed you last evening1 all natural beauty had ceased to be permitted in architectural decoration1 while the habits of society led them more and more to live1 if possible1 in cities2 and the dress1 language1 and manners of men in general were approximating to that horrible and lifeless condition in which you find them just before the outbreak of the ,french ,revolution4 ,now1 observe3 exactly as hoops1 and starch1 and false hair1 and all that in mind and heart these things typify and betray1 as these1 ,i say1 gained upon men1 there was a necessary reaction in favor of the natural4 ,men had never lived so utterly in defiance of the laws of nature before2 but they could not do this without feeling a strange charm in that which they defied2 and1 accordingly1 we find this reactionary sentiment expressing itself in a base school of what was called pastoral poetry2 that is to say1 poetry written in praise of the country1 by men who lived in coffee-houses and on the ,mall4 ,the essence of pastoral poetry is the sense of strange delightfulness in grass1 which is occasionally felt by a man who has seldom set his foot on it2 it is essentially the poetry of the cockney1 and for the most part corresponds in its aim and rank1 as compared with other literature1 to the porcelain shepherds and shepherdesses on a chimney-piece as compared with great works of sculpture4 #ij4 ,of course all good poetry1 descriptive of rural life1 is essentially pastoral1 or has the effect of the pastoral on the minds of men living in cities2 but the class of poetry which ,i mean1 and which you probably understand by the term pastoral1 is that in which a farmer's girl is spoken of as a nymph1 and a farmer's boy as a swain1 and in which1 throughout1 a ridiculous and unnatural refinement is supposed to exist in rural life1 merely because the poet himself has neither had the courage to endure its hardships1 nor the wit to conceive its realities4 ,if you examine the literature of the #agth and #ahth centuries you will find that nearly all its expressions1 having reference to the country1 show something of this kind2 either a foolish sentimentality1 or a morbid fear1 both of course coupled with the most curious ignorance4 ,you will find all its descriptive expressions at once vague and monotonous4 ,brooks are always purling2 birds always warbling2 mountains always lift their horrid peaks above the clouds2 vales always are lost in the shadow of gloomy woods2 a few more distinct ideas about hay-making and curds and cream1 acquired in the neighborhood of ,richmond ,bridge1 serving to give an occasional appearance of freshness to the catalogue of the sublime and beautiful which descended from poet to poet2 while a few true pieces of pastoral1 like the ,vicar of ,wakefield1 and ,walton's ,angler1 relieved the general waste of dullness4 ,even in these better productions1 nothing is more remarkable than the general conception of the country merely as a series of green fields1 and the combined ignorance and dread of more sublime scenery2 of which the mysteries and dangers were enhanced by the difficulties of traveling at the period4 ,thus in ,walton's ,angler1 you have a meeting of two friends1 one a ,derbyshire man1 the other a lowland traveler1 who is as much alarmed1 and uses nearly as many expressions of astonishment1 at having to go down a steep hill and ford a brook1 as a traveler uses now at crossing the glacier of the ,col du ,geant4 ,i am not sure whether the difficulties which1 until late years1 have lain in the way of peaceful and convenient traveling1 ought not to have great weight assigned to them among the other causes of the temper of the period2 but be that as it may1 if you will examine the whole range of its literature--keeping this point in view--,i am well persuaded that you will be struck most forcibly by the strange deadness to the higher sources of landscape sublimity which is mingled with the morbid pastoralism4 ,the love of fresh air and green grass forced itself upon the animal natures of men2 but that of the sublimer features of scenery had no place in minds whose chief powers had been repressed by the formalisms of the age4 ,and although in the second-rate writers continually1 and in the first-rate ones occasionally1 you find an affectation of interest in mountains1 clouds1 and forests1 yet whenever they write from their heart1 you will find an utter absence of feeling respecting anything beyond gardens and grass4 ,examine1 for instance1 the novels of ,smollett1 ,fielding1 and ,sterne1 the comedies of ,moliere1 and the writings of ,johnson and ,addison1 and ,i do not think you will find a single expression of true delight in sublime nature in any one of them4 ,perhaps ,sterne's ,sentimental ,journey1 in its total absence of sentiment on any subject but humanity1 and its entire want of notice of anything at ,geneva1 which might not as well have been seen at ,coxwold1 is the most striking instance ,i could give you2 and if you compare with this negation of feeling on one side1 the interludes of ,moliere1 in which shepherds and shepherdesses are introduced in court dress1 you will have a very accurate conception of the general spirit of the age4 #ia4 ,it was in such a state of society that the landscape of ,claude1 ,gaspar ,poussin1 and ,salvator ,rosa attained its reputation4 ,it is the complete expression on canvas of the spirit of the time4 ,claude embodies the foolish pastoralism1 ,salvator the ignorant terror1 and ,gaspar the dull and affected erudition4 ,it was1 however1 altogether impossible that this state of things could long continue4 ,the age which had buried itself in formalism grew weary at last of the restraint2 and the approach of a new era was marked by the appearance1 and the enthusiastic reception1 of writers who took true delight in those wild scenes of nature which had so long been despised4 #ib4 ,i think the first two writers in whom the symptoms of a change are strongly manifested are ,mrs4 ,radcliffe and ,rousseau2 in both of whom the love of natural scenery1 though mingled in the one case with what was merely dramatic1 and in the other with much that was pitifully morbid or vicious1 was still itself genuine1 and intense1 differing altogether in character from any sentiments previously traceable in literature4 ,and then rapidly followed a group of writers1 who expressed1 in various ways1 the more powerful or more pure feeling which had now become one of the strongest instincts of the age4 ,of these1 the principal is your own ,walter ,scott4 ,many writers1 indeed1 describe nature more minutely and more profoundly2 but none show in higher intensity the peculiar passion for what is majestic or lovely in wild nature1 to which ,i am now referring4 ,the whole of the poem of the ,lady of the ,lake is written with almost a boyish enthusiasm for rocks1 and lakes1 and cataracts2 the early novels show the same instinct in equal strength wherever he approaches ,highland scenery2 and the feeling is mingled1 observe1 with a most touching and affectionate appreciation of the ,gothic architecture1 in which alone he found the elements of natural beauty seized by art2 so that1 to this day1 his descriptions of ,melrose and ,holy ,island ,cathedral1 in the ,lay of the ,last ,minstrel and ,marmion1 as well as of the ideal abbeys in the ,monastery and ,antiquary1 together with those of ,caerlaverock and ,lochleven ,castles in ,guy ,mannering and ,the ,abbot1 remain the staple possessions and text-books of all travelers1 not so much for their beauty or accuracy1 as for their exactly expressing that degree of feeling with which most men in this century can sympathize4 ,together with ,scott appeared the group of poets--,byron1 ,wordsworth1 ,keats1 ,shelley1 and1 finally1 ,tennyson--differing widely in moral principles and spiritual temper1 but all agreeing more or less in this love for natural scenery4 #ic4 ,now1 you will ask me--and you will ask me most reasonably--how this love of nature in modern days can be connected with ,christianity1 seeing it is as strong in the infidel ,shelley as in the sacred ,wordsworth4 ,yes1 and it is found in far worse men than ,shelley4 ,shelley was an honest unbeliever1 and a man of warm affections2 but this new love of nature is found in the most reckless and unprincipled of the ,french novelists--in ,eugene ,sue1 in ,dumas1 in ,george ,sand--and that intensely4 ,how is this8 ,simply because the feeling is reactionary2 and1 in this phase of it1 common to the diseased mind as well as to the healthy one4 ,a man dying in the fever of intemperance will cry out for water1 and that with a bitterer thirst than a man whose healthy frame naturally delights in the mountain spring more than in the wine cup4 ,the water is not dishonored by that thirst of the diseased1 nor is nature dishonored by the love of the unworthy4 ,that love is1 perhaps1 the only saving element in their minds2 and it still remains an indisputable truth that the love of nature is a characteristic of the ,christian heart1 just as the hunger for healthy food is characteristic of the healthy frame4 ,in order to meet this new feeling for nature1 there necessarily arose a new school of landscape painting4 ,that school1 like the literature to which it corresponded1 had many weak and vicious elements mixed with its noble ones2 it had its ,mrs4 ,radcliffes and ,rousseaus1 as well as its ,wordsworths2 but1 on the whole1 the feeling with which ,robson drew mountains1 and ,prout architecture1 with which ,fielding draws moors1 and ,stanfield sea--is altogether pure1 true1 and precious1 as compared with that which suggested the landscape of the seventeenth century4 #id4 ,now observe1 how simple the whole subject becomes4 ,you have1 first1 your great ancient landscape divided into its three periods--,giottesque1 ,leonardesque1 ,titianesque4 ,then you have a great gap1 full of nonentities and abortions2 a gulf of foolishness1 into the bottom of which you may throw ,claude and ,salvator1 neither of them deserving to give a name to anything4 ,call it pastoral landscape1 guarda e passa1 and then you have1 lastly1 the pure1 wholesome1 simple1 modern landscape4 ,you want a name for that3 ,i will give you one in a moment2 for the whole character and power of that landscape is originally based on the work of one man4 #ie4 ,joseph ,mallord ,william ,turner was born in ,maiden ,lane1 ,london1 about eighty years ago4 ,the register of his birth was burned1 and his age at his death could only be arrived at by conjecture4 ,he was the son of a barber2 and his father intended him1 very properly1 for his own profession4 ,the bent of the boy was1 however1 soon manifested1 as is always the case in children of extraordinary genius1 too strongly to be resisted2 and a sketch of a coat of arms on a silver salver1 made while his father was shaving a customer1 obtained for him1 in reluctant compliance with the admiring customer's advice1 the permission to follow art as a profession4 ,he had1 of course1 the usual difficulties of young artists to encounter1 and they were then far greater than they are now4 ,but ,turner differed from most men in this1--that he was always willing to take anything to do that came in his way4 ,he did not shut himself up in a garret to produce unsalable works of high art1 and starve1 or lose his senses4 ,he hired himself out every evening to wash in skies in ,indian ink1 on other people's drawings1 as many as he could1 at half-a-crown a-night1 getting his supper into the bargain4 ,what could ,i have done better8 he said afterwards3 it was first-rate practice4 ,then he took to illustrating guide-books and almanacs1 and anything that wanted cheap frontispieces4 ,the ,oxford ,almanack1 published on a single sheet1 with a copper-plate at the top of it1 consisting of a ,view--you perhaps1 some of you1 know the kind of print characteristic of the last century1 under which the word ,view is always printed in large letters1 with a dedication1 obsequious to the very dust1 to the ,grand ,signior of the neighborhood4 ,well1 this ,almanack had always such a view of some ,oxford ,college at the top of it1 dedicated1 ,i think1 always to the head of the ,college2 and it owed this1 its principal decoration1 to ,turner for many years4 ,i have myself two careful drawings of some old seals1 made by him for a local book on the antiquities of ,whalley ,abbey4 ,and there was hardly a gentleman's seat of any importance in ,england1 towards the close of the last century1 of which you will not find some rude engraving in the local publications of the time1 inscribed with the simple name ,w4 ,turner4 #if4 ,there was another great difference between ,turner and other men4 ,in doing these drawings for the commonest publications of the day1 and for a remuneration altogether contemptible1 he never did his work badly because he thought it beneath him1 or because he was ill-paid4 ,there does not exist such a thing as a slovenly drawing by ,turner4 ,with what people were willing to give him for his work he was content2 but he considered that work in its relation to himself1 not in its relation to the purchaser4 ,he took a poor price1 that he might live2 but he made noble drawings1 that he might learn4 ,of course some are slighter than others1 and they vary in their materials2 those executed with pencil and ,indian ink being never finished to the degree of those which are executed in color4 ,but he is never careless4 ,according to the time and means at his disposal1 he always did his best4 ,he never let a drawing leave his hands without having made a step in advance1 and having done better in it than he had ever done before2 and there is no important drawing of the period which is not executed with a total disregard of time and price1 and which was not1 even then1 worth four or five times what ,turner received for it4 ,even without genius1 a man who thus felt and thus labored was sure to do great things2 though it is seldom that1 without great genius1 men either thus feel or thus labor4 ,turner was as far beyond all other men in intellect as in industry2 and his advance in power and grasp of thought was as steady as the increasing light of sunrise4 #ig4 ,his reputation was soon so far established that he was able to devote himself to more consistent study4 ,he never appears literally to have copied any picture2 but whenever any master interested him1 or was of so established a reputation that he thought it necessary to study him1 he painted pictures of his own subjects in the style of that master1 until he felt himself able to rival his excellencies1 whatever they were4 ,there are thus multitudes of pictures by ,turner which are direct imitations of other masters2 especially of ,claude1 ,wilson1 ,loutherbourg1 ,gaspar ,poussin1 ,vandevelde1 ,cuyp1 and ,rembrandt4 ,it has been argued by ,mr4 ,leslie that1 because ,turner thus in his early years imitated many of the old masters1 therefore he must to the end of his life have considered them greater than himself4 ,the non sequitur is obvious4 ,i trust there are few men so unhappy as never to have learned anything from their inferiors2 and ,i fear there are few men so wise as never to have imitated anything but what was deserving of imitation4 ,the young ,turner1 indeed1 would have been more than mortal if1 in a period utterly devoid of all healthy examples of landscape art1 he had been able at once to see his way to the attainment of his ultimate ends2 or if1 seeing it1 he had felt himself at once strong enough to defy the authority of every painter and connoisseur whose style had formed the taste of the public1 or whose dicta directed their patronage4 #ih4 ,but the period when he both felt and resolved to assert his own superiority was indicated with perfect clearness1 by his publishing a series of engravings1 which were nothing else than direct challenges to ,claude--then the landscape painter supposed to be the greatest in the world--upon his own ground and his own terms4 ,you are probably all aware that the studies made by ,claude for his pictures1 and kept by him under the name of the ,liber ,veritatis1 were for the most part made with pen and ink1 washed over with a brown tint2 and that these drawings have been carefully facsimiled and published in the form of mezzotint engravings1 long supposed to be models of taste in landscape composition4 ,in order to provoke comparison between ,claude and himself1 ,turner published a series of engravings1 called the ,liber ,studiorum1 executed in exactly the same manner as these drawings of ,claude1--an etching representing what was done with the pen1 while mezzotint stood for color4 ,you see the notable publicity of this challenge4 ,had he confined himself to pictures in his trial of skill with ,claude1 it would only have been in the gallery or the palace that the comparison could have been instituted2 but now it is in the power of all who are interested in the matter to make it at their ease4#cb ,footnote #cb3 ,when this lecture was delivered1 an enlarged copy of a portion of one of these studies by ,claude was set beside a similarly magnified portion of one by ,turner4 ,it was impossible1 without much increasing the cost of the publication1 to prepare two mezzotint engravings with the care requisite for this purpose2 and the portion of the ,lecture relating to these examples is therefore omitted4 ,it is1 however1 in the power of every reader to procure one or more plates of each series2 and to judge for himself whether the conclusion of ,turner's superiority1 which is assumed in the next sentence of the text1 be a just one or not4 99 99 99 99 99 #ii4 ,now1 what ,turner did in contest with ,claude1 he did with every other then-known master of landscape1 each in his turn4 ,he challenged1 and vanquished1 each in his own peculiar field1 ,vandevelde on the sea1 ,salvator among rocks1 and ,cuyp on ,lowland rivers2 and1 having done this1 set himself to paint the natural scenery of skies1 mountains1 and lakes1 which1 until his time1 had never been so much as attempted4 ,he thus1 in the extent of his sphere1 far surpassed even ,titian and ,leonardo1 the great men of the earlier schools4 ,in their foreground work neither ,titian nor ,leonardo could be excelled2 but ,titian and ,leonardo were throughly conventional in all but their foregrounds4 ,turner was equally great in all the elements of landscape1 and it is on him1 and on his daring additions to the received schemes of landscape art1 that all modern landscape has been founded4 ,you will never meet any truly great living landscape painter who will not at once frankly confess his obligations to ,turner1 not1 observe1 as having copied him1 but as having been led by ,turner to look in nature for what he would otherwise either not have discerned1 or discerning1 not have dared to represent4 #ajj4 ,turner1 therefore1 was the first man who presented us with the type of perfect landscape art3 and the richness of that art1 with which you are at present surrounded1 and which enables you to open your walls as it were into so many windows1 through which you can see whatever has charmed you in the fairest scenery of your country1 you will do well to remember as ,turneresque4 ,so then you have these five periods to recollect--you will have no difficulty1 ,i trust1 in doing so1--the periods of ,giotto1 ,leonardo1 ,titian1 pastoralism1 and ,turner4 #aja4 ,but ,turner's work is yet only begun4 ,his greatness is1 as yet1 altogether denied by many2 and to the full1 felt by very few4 ,but every day that he lies in his grave will bring some new acknowledgment of his power2 and through those eyes1 now filled with dust1 generations yet unborn will learn to behold the light of nature4 ,you have some ground to-night to accuse me of dogmatism4 ,i can bring no proof before you of what ,i so boldly assert4 ,but ,i would not have accepted your invitation to address you1 unless ,i had felt that ,i had a right to be1 in this matter1 dogmatic4 ,i did not come here to tell you of my beliefs or my conjectures2 ,i came to tell you the truth which ,i have given fifteen years of my life to ascertain1 that this man1 this ,turner1 of whom you have known so little while he was living among you1 will one day take his place beside ,shakespeare and ,verulam1 in the annals of the light of ,england4 ,yes3 beside ,shakespeare and ,verulam1 a third star in that central constellation1 round which1 in the astronomy of intellect1 all other stars make their circuit4 ,by ,shakespeare1 humanity was unsealed to you2 by ,verulam the principles of nature2 and by ,turner1 her aspect4 ,all these were sent to unlock one of the gates of light1 and to unlock it for the first time4 ,but of all the three1 though not the greatest1 ,turner was the most unprecedented in his work4 ,bacon did what ,aristotle had attempted2 ,shakespeare did perfectly what ,a,eschylus did partially2 but none before ,turner had lifted the veil from the face of nature2 the majesty of the hills and forests had received no interpretation1 and the clouds passed unrecorded from the face of the heaven which they adorned1 and of the earth to which they ministered4 #ajb4 ,and now let me tell you something of his personal character4 ,you have heard him spoken of as ill-natured1 and jealous of his brother artists4 ,i will tell you how jealous he was4 ,i knew him for ten years1 and during that time had much familiar intercourse with him4 ,i never once heard him say an unkind thing of a brother artist1 and ,i never once heard him find a fault with another man's work4 ,i could say this of no other artist whom ,i have ever known4 ,but ,i will add a piece of evidence on this matter of peculiar force4 ,probably many here have read a book which has been lately published1 to my mind one of extreme interest and value1 the life of the unhappy artist1 ,benjamin ,haydon4 ,whatever may have been his faults1 ,i believe no person can read his journal without coming to the conclusion that his heart was honest1 and that he does not willfully misrepresent any fact1 or any person4 ,even supposing otherwise1 the expression ,i am going to quote to you would have all the more force1 because1 as you know1 ,haydon passed his whole life in war with the ,royal ,academy1 of which ,turner was one of the most influential members4 ,yet in the midst of one of his most violent expressions of exultation at one of his victories over the ,academy1 he draws back suddenly with these words3--,but ,turner behaved well1 and did me justice4 #ajc4 ,i will give you however besides1 two plain facts illustrative of ,turner's jealousy4 ,you have1 perhaps not many of you1 heard of a painter of the name of ,bird3 ,i do not myself know his works1 but ,turner saw some merit in them3 and when ,bird first sent a picture to the ,academy1 for exhibition1 ,turner was on the hanging committee4 ,bird's picture had great merit2 but no place for it could be found4 ,turner pleaded hard for it4 ,no1 the thing was impossible4 ,turner sat down and looked at ,bird's picture a long time2 then insisted that a place must be found for it4 ,he was still met by the assertion of impracticability4 ,he said no more1 but took down one of his own pictures1 sent it out of the ,academy1 and hung ,bird's in its place4 ,match that1 if you can1 among the annals of hanging committees4 ,but he could do nobler things than this4 #ajd4 ,when ,turner's picture of ,cologne was exhibited in the year #ahbf1 it was hung between two portraits1 by ,sir ,thomas ,lawrence1 of ,lady ,wallscourt and ,lady ,robert ,manners4 ,the sky of ,turner's picture was exceedingly bright1 and it had a most injurious effect on the color of the two portraits4 ,lawrence naturally felt mortified1 and complained openly of the position of his pictures4 ,you are aware that artists were at that time permitted to retouch their pictures on the walls of the ,academy4 ,on the morning of the opening of the exhibition1 at the private view1 a friend of ,turner's who had seen the ,cologne in all its splendor1 led a group of expectant critics up to the picture4 ,he started back from it in consternation4 ,the golden sky had changed to a dun color4 ,he ran up to ,turner1 who was in another part of the room4 ,turner1 what have you been doing to your picture8 ,oh1 muttered ,turner1 in a low voice1 poor ,lawrence was so unhappy4 ,it's only lamp-black4 ,it'll all wash off after the exhibition6 ,he had actually passed a wash of lamp-black in water-color over the whole sky1 and utterly spoiled his picture for the time1 and so left it through the exhibition1 lest it should hurt ,lawrence's4 ,you may easily find instances of self-sacrifice where men have strong motives1 and where large benefits are to be conferred by the effort1 or general admiration obtained by it2 but of pure1 unselfish1 and perfect generosity1 showing itself in a matter of minor interest1 and when few could be aware of the sacrifice made1 you will not easily find such another example as this4 #aje4 ,thus much for his jealousy of his brother-artists4 ,you have also heard much of his niggardliness in money transactions4 ,a great part of what you have heard is perfectly true1 allowing for the exaggeration which always takes place in the accounts of an eccentric character4 ,but there are other parts of ,turner's conduct of which you have never heard2 and which1 if truly reported1 would set his niggardliness in a very different light4 ,every person from whom ,turner exacted a due shilling1 proclaimed the exaction far and wide2 but the persons to whom ,turner gave hundreds of pounds were prevented1 by their delicacy1 from reporting the kindness of their benefactor4 ,i may1 however1 perhaps1 be permitted to acquaint you with one circumstance of this nature1 creditable alike to both parties concerned4 ,at the death of a poor drawing master1 ,mr4 ,wells1#cc whom ,turner had long known1 he was deeply affected1 and lent money to the widow until a large sum had accumulated4 ,she was both honest and grateful1 and after a long period was happy enough to be able to return to her benefactor the whole sum she had received from him4 ,she waited on him with it2 but ,turner kept his hands in his pockets4 ,keep it1 he said1 and send your children to school1 and to church4 ,he said this in bitterness2 he had himself been sent to neither4 ,footnote #cc3 ,not the ,mr4 ,wells who taught drawing at ,addiscombe4 ,it appears that ,turner knew two persons of the same name1 and in the same profession4 ,i am not permitted to name my authority for the anecdote2 various egotistic delicacies1 even in this case1 preventing useful truth from being clearly assured to the public4 #ajf4 ,well1 but1 you will answer to me1 we have heard ,turner all our lives stigmatized as brutal1 and uncharitable1 and selfish1 and miserly4 ,how are we to understand these opposing statements8 ,easily4 ,i have told you truly what ,turner was4 ,you have often heard what to most people he appeared to be4 ,imagine what it was for a man to live seventy years in this hard world1 with the kindest heart1 and the noblest intellect of his time1 and never to meet with a single word or ray of sympathy1 until he felt himself sinking into the grave4 ,from the time he knew his true greatness all the world was turned against him3 he held his own2 but it could not be without roughness of bearing1 and hardening of the temper1 if not of the heart4 ,no one understood him1 no one trusted him1 and every one cried out against him4 ,imagine1 any of you1 the effect upon your own minds1 if every voice that you heard from the human beings around you were raised1 year after year1 through all your lives1 only in condemnation of your efforts1 and denial of your success4 ,this may be borne1 and borne easily1 by men who have fixed religious principles1 or supporting domestic ties4 ,but ,turner had no one to teach him in his youth1 and no one to love him in his old age4 ,respect and affection1 if they came at all1 came unbelieved1 or came too late4 ,naturally irritable1 though kind--naturally suspicious1 though generous--the gold gradually became dim1 and the most fine gold changed1 or1 if not changed1 overcast and clouded4 ,the deep heart was still beating1 but it was beneath a dark and melancholy mail1 between whose joints1 however1 sometimes the slightest arrows found entrance1 and power of giving pain4 ,he received no consolation in his last years1 nor in his death4 ,cut off in great part from all society--first1 by labor1 and at last by sickness--hunted to his grave by the malignities of small critics1 and the jealousies of hopeless rivalry1 he died in the house of a stranger--one companion of his life1 and one only1 staying with him to the last4 ,the window of his death-chamber was turned towards the west1 and the sun shone upon his face in its setting1 and rested there1 as he expired4 ,,lecture ,,iv4 ,,pre-,,raphaelitism4 ,delivered ,november #ah1 #ahec4 #ajg4 ,the subject on which ,i would desire to engage your attention this evening1 is the nature and probable result of a certain schism which took place a few years ago among our ,british artists4 ,this schism1 or rather the heresy which led to it1 as you are probably aware1 was introduced by a small number of very young men2 and consists mainly in the assertion that the principles on which art has been taught for these three hundred years back are essentially wrong1 and that the principles which ought to guide us are those which prevailed before the time of ,raphael2 in adopting which1 therefore1 as their guides1 these young men1 as a sort of bond of unity among themselves1 took the unfortunate and somewhat ludicrous name of ,pre-,raphaelite ,brethren4 #ajh4 ,you must also be aware that this heresy has been opposed with all the influence and all the bitterness of art and criticism2 but that in spite of these the heresy has gained ground1 and the pictures painted on these new principles have obtained a most extensive popularity4 ,these circumstances are sufficiently singular1 but their importance is greater even than their singularity2 and your time will certainly not be wasted in devoting an hour to an inquiry into the true nature of this movement4 ,i shall first1 therefore1 endeavor to state to you what the real difference is between the principles of art before and after ,raphael's time1 and then to ascertain1 with you1 how far these young men truly have understood the difference1 and what may be hoped or feared from the effort they are making4 #aji4 ,first1 then1 ,what is the real difference between the principles on which art has been pursued before and since ,raphael8 ,you must be aware1 that the principal ground on which the ,pre-,raphaelites have been attacked1 is the charge that they wish to bring us back to a time of darkness and ignorance1 when the principles of drawing1 and of art in general1 were comparatively unknown2 and this attack1 therefore1 is entirely founded on the assumption that1 although for some unaccountable reason we cannot at present produce artists altogether equal to ,raphael1 yet that we are on the whole in a state of greater illumination than1 at all events1 any artists who preceded ,raphael2 so that we consider ourselves entitled to look down upon them1 and to say that1 all things considered1 they did some wonderful things for their time2 but that1 as for comparing the art of ,giotto to that of ,wilkie or ,edwin ,landseer1 it would be perfectly ridiculous1--the one being a mere infant in his profession1 and the others accomplished workmen4 ,now1 that this progress has in some things taken place is perfectly true2 but it is true also that this progress is by no means the main thing to be noticed respecting ancient and modern art2 that there are other circumstances1 connected with the change from one to the other1 immeasurably more important1 and which1 until very lately1 have been altogether lost sight of4 #aaj4 ,the fact is1 that modern art is not so much distinguished from old art by greater skill1 as by a radical change in temper4 ,the art of this day is not merely a more knowing art than that of the thirteenth century1--it is altogether another art4 ,between the two there is a great gulf1 a distinction forever ineffaceable4 ,the change from one to the other was not that of the child into the man1 as we usually consider it2 it was that of the chrysalis into the butterfly4 ,there was an entire change in the habits1 food1 method of existence1 and heart of the whole creature4 ,that we know more than thirteenth century people is perfectly true2 but that is not the essential difference between us and them4 ,we are different kind of creatures from them1--as different as moths are different from caterpillars2 and different in a certain broad and vast sense1 which ,i shall try this evening to explain and prove to you2--different not merely in this or that result of minor circumstances1--not as you are different from people who never saw a locomotive engine1 or a ,highlander of this century from a ,highlander of #agde2--;different in a far broader and mightier sense than that2 in a sense so great and clear1 that we are enabled to separate all the ,christian nations and tongues of the early time from those of the latter time1 and speak of them in one group as the kingdoms of the ,middle ,ages4 ,there is an infinite significance in that term1 which ,i want you to dwell upon and work out2 it is a term which we use in a dim consciousness of the truth1 but without fully penetrating into that of which we are conscious4 ,i want to deepen and make clear to you this consciousness that the world has had essentially a ,trinity of ages--the ,classical ,age1 the ,middle ,age1 the ,modern ,age2 each of these embracing races and individuals of apparently enormous separation in kind1 but united in the spirit of their age1--the ,classical ,age having its ,egyptians and ,ninevites1 ,greeks and ,romans1--the ,middle ,age having its ,goths and ,franks1 ,lombards and ,italians1--the ,modern ,age having its ,french and ,english1 ,spaniards and ,germans2 but all these distinctions being in each case subordinate to the mightier and broader distinction1 between ,classicalism1 ,mediaevalism1 and ,modernism4 #aaa4 ,now our object to-night is indeed only to inquire into a matter of art2 but we cannot do so properly until we consider this art in its relation to the inner spirit of the age in which it exists2 and by doing so we shall not only arrive at the most just conclusions respecting our present subject1 but we shall obtain the means of arriving at just conclusions respecting many other things4 ,now the division of time which the ,pre-,raphaelites have adopted1 in choosing ,raphael as the man whose works mark the separation between ,mediaevalism and ,modernism1 is perfectly accurate4 ,it has been accepted as such by all their opponents4 ,you have1 then1 the three periods3 ,classicalism1 extending to the fall of the ,roman empire2 ,mediaevalism1 extending from that fall to the close of the fifteenth century2 and ,modernism thenceforward to our days4 #aab4 ,and in examining into the spirit of these three epochs1 observe1 ,i don't mean to compare their bad men1--,i don't mean to take ,tiberius as a type of ,classicalism1 nor ,ezzelin as a type of ,mediaevalism1 nor ,robespierre as a type of ,modernism4 ,bad men are like each other in all epochs2 and in the ,roman1 the ,paduan1 or the ,parisian1 sensuality and cruelty admit of little distinction in the manners of their manifestation4 ,but among men comparatively virtuous1 it is important to study the phases of character2 and it is into these only that it is necessary for us to inquire4 ,consider therefore1 first1 the essential difference in character between three of the most devoted military heroes whom the three great epochs of the world have produced1--all three devoted to the service of their country1--all of them dying therein4 ,i mean1 ,leonidas in the ,classical period1 ,st4 ,louis in the ,mediaeval period1 and ,lord ,nelson in the ,modern period4 ,leonidas had the most rigid sense of duty1 and died with the most perfect faith in the gods of his country1 fulfilling the accepted prophecy of his death4 ,st4 ,louis had the most rigid sense of duty1 and the most perfect faith in ,christ4 ,nelson had the most rigid sense of duty1 and---- ,you must supply my pause with your charity4 ,now you do not suppose that the main difference between ,leonidas and ,nelson lay in the modern inventions at the command of the one1 as compared with the imperfect military instruments possessed by the other4 ,they were not essentially different1 in that the one fought with lances and the other with guns4 ,but they were essentially different in the whole tone of their religious belief4 #aac4 ,by this instance you may be partially prepared for the bold statement ,i am going to make to you1 as to the change which constitutes ,modernism4 ,i said just now that it was like that of the worm to the butterfly4 ,but the changes which ,god causes in ,his lower creatures are almost always from worse to better1 while the changes which ,god allows man to make in himself are very often quite the other way2 like ,adam's new arrangement of his nature4 ,and in saying that this last change was like that of a chrysalis1 ,i meant only in the completeness of it1 not in the tendency of it4 ,instead of from the worm to the butterfly1 it is very possible it may have been from the butterfly to the worm4 ,have patience with me for a moment after ,i tell you what ,i believe it to have been1 and give me a little time to justify my words4 #aad4 ,i say that ,classicalism began1 wherever civilization began1 with ,pagan ,faith4 ,mediaevalism began1 and continued1 wherever civilization began and continued to confess ,christ4 ,and1 lastly1 ,modernism began and continues1 wherever civilization began and continues to deny ,christ4 ,you are startled1 but give me a moment to explain4 ,what1 you would say to me1 do you mean to tell us that we deny ,christ8 we who are essentially modern in every one of our principles and feelings1 and yet all of us professing believers in ,christ1 and we trust most of us true ones8 ,i answer1 ,so far as we are believers indeed1 we are one with the faithful of all times1--one with the classical believer of ,athens and ,ephesus1 and one with the mediaeval believer of the banks of the ,rhone and the valleys of the ,monte ,viso4 ,but so far as1 in various strange ways1 some in great and some in small things1 we deny this belief1 in so far we are essentially infected with this spirit1 which ,i call ,modernism4 #aae4 ,for observe1 the change of which ,i speak has nothing whatever to do with the ,reformation1 or with any of its effects4 ,it is a far broader thing than the ,reformation4 ,it is a change which has taken place1 not only in reformed ,england1 and reformed ,scotland2 but in unreformed ,france1 in unreformed ,italy1 in unreformed ,austria4 ,i class honest ,protestants and honest ,roman ,catholics for the present together1 under the general term ,christians3 if you object to their being so classed together1 ,i pray your pardon1 but allow me to do so at present1 for the sake of perspicuity1 if for nothing else2 and so classing them1 ,i say that a change took place1 about the time of ,raphael1 in the spirit of ,roman ,catholics and ,protestants both2 and that change consisted in the denial of their religious belief1 at least in the external and trivial affairs of life1 and often in far more serious things4 #aaf4 ,for instance1 hear this direction to an upholsterer of the early thirteenth century4 ,under the commands of the ,sheriff of ,wiltshire1 he is thus ordered to make some alterations in a room for ,henry the ,third4 ,he is to wainscot the ,king's lower chamber1 and to paint that wainscot of a green color1 and to put a border to it1 and to cause the heads of kings and queens to be painted on the borders2 and to paint on the walls of the ,king's upper chamber the story of ,st4 ,margaret1 ,virgin1 and the four ,evangelists1 and to paint the wainscot of the same chamber of a green color1 spotted with gold4#cd ,footnote #cd3 ,liberate ,rolls1 preserved in the ,tower of ,london1 and quoted by ,mr4 ,turner in his ,history of the ,domestic ,architecture of ,england4 ,again1 the ,sheriff of ,wiltshire is ordered to put two small glass windows in the chamber of ,edward the ,king's son2 and put a glass window in the chamber of our ,queen at ,clarendon2 and in the same window cause to be painted a ,mary with her ,child1 and at the feet of the said ,mary1 a queen with clasped hands4 ,again1 the ,sheriff of ,southampton is ordered to paint the tablet beside the ,king's bed1 with the figures of the guards of the bed of ,solomon1 and to glaze with white glass the windows in the ,king's great ,hall at ,northampton1 and cause the history of ,lazarus and ,dives to be painted in the same4 #aag4 ,and so on2 ,i need not multiply instances4 ,you see that in all these cases1 the furniture of the ,king's house is made to confess his ,christianity4 ,it may be imperfect and impure ,christianity1 but such as it might be1 it was all that men had then to live and die by2 and you see there was not a pane of glass in their windows1 nor a pallet by their bedside that did not confess and proclaim it4 ,now1 when you go home to your own rooms1 supposing them to be richly decorated at all1 examine what that decoration consists of4 ,you will find ,cupids1 ,graces1 ,floras1 ,dianas1 ,jupiters1 ,junos4 ,but you will not find1 except in the form of an engraving1 bought principally for its artistic beauty1 either ,christ1 or the ,virgin1 or ,lazarus and ,dives4 ,and if a thousand years hence1 any curious investigator were to dig up the ruins of ,edinburgh1 and not know your history1 he would think you had all been born heathens4 ,now that1 so far as it goes1 is denying ,christ2 it is pure ,modernism4 ,no1 you will answer me1 you misunderstand and calumniate us4 ,we do not1 indeed1 choose to have ,dives and ,lazarus on our windows2 but that is not because we are moderns1 but because we are ,protestants1 and do not like religious imagery4 ,pardon me3 that is not the reason4 ,go into any fashionable lady's boudoir in ,paris1 and see if you will find ,dives and ,lazarus there4 ,you will find1 indeed1 either that she has her private chapel1 or that she has a crucifix in her dressing-room2 but for the general decoration of the house1 it is all composed of ,apollos and ,muses1 just as it is here4 #aah4 ,again4 ,what do you suppose was the substance of good education1 the education of a knight1 in the ,middle ,ages8 ,what was taught to a boy as soon as he was able to learn anything8 ,first1 to keep under his body1 and bring it into subjection and perfect strength2 then to take ,christ for his captain1 to live as always in ,his presence1 and finally1 to do his devoir--mark the word--to all men4 ,now consider1 first1 the difference in their influence over the armies of ,france1 between the ancient word devoir1 and modern word gloire4 ,and1 again1 ask yourselves what you expect your own children to be taught at your great schools and universities4 ,is it ,christian history1 or the histories of ,pan and ,silenus8 ,your present education1 to all intents and purposes1 denies ,christ1 and that is intensely and peculiarly ,modernism4 #aai4 ,or1 again1 what do you suppose was the proclaimed and understood principle of all ,christian governments in the ,middle ,ages8 ,i do not say it was a principle acted up to1 or that the cunning and violence of wicked men had not too often their full sway then as now2 but on what principles were that cunning and violence1 so far as was possible1 restrained8 ,by the confessed fear of ,god1 and confessed authority of ,his law4 ,you will find that all treaties1 laws1 transactions whatsoever1 in the ,middle ,ages1 are based on a confession of ,christianity as the leading rule of life2 that a text of ,scripture is held1 in all public assemblies1 strong enough to be set against an appearance of expediency2 and although1 in the end1 the expediency might triumph1 yet it was never without a distinct allowance of ,christian principle1 as an efficient element in the consultation4 ,whatever error might be committed1 at least ,christ was openly confessed4 ,now what is the custom of your ,british ,parliament in these days8 ,you know that nothing would excite greater manifestations of contempt and disgust than the slightest attempt to introduce the authority of ,scripture in a political consultation4 ,that is denying ,christ4 ,it is intensely and peculiarly ,modernism4 #abj4 ,it would be easy to go on showing you this same thing in many more instances2 but my business to-night is to show you its full effect in one thing only1 namely1 in art1 and ,i must come straightway to that1 as ,i have little enough time4 ,this1 then1 is the great and broad fact which distinguishes modern art from old art2 that all ancient art was religious1 and all modern art is profane4 ,once more1 your patience for an instant4 ,i say1 all ancient art was religious2 that is to say1 religion was its first object2 private luxury or pleasure its second4 ,i say all modern art is profane2 that is1 private luxury or pleasure is its first object2 religion its second4 ,now you all know1 that anything which makes religion its second object1 makes religion no object4 ,god will put up with a great many things in the human heart1 but there is one thing ,he will not put up with in it--a second place4 ,he who offers ,god a second place1 offers ,him no place4 ,and there is another mighty truth which you all know1 that he who makes religion his first object1 makes it his whole object2 he has no other work in the world than ,god's work4 ,therefore ,i do not say that ancient art was more religious than modern art4 ,there is no question of degree in this matter4 ,ancient art was religious art2 modern art is profane art2 and between the two the distinction is as firm as between light and darkness4 #aba4 ,now1 do not let what ,i say be encumbered in your minds with the objection1 that you think art ought not to be brought into the service of religion4 ,that is not the question at present--do not agitate it4 ,the simple fact is1 that old art was brought into that service1 and received therein a peculiar form2 that modern art is not brought into that service1 and has received in consequence another form2 that this is the great distinction between mediaeval and modern art2 and from that are clearly deducible all other essential differences between them4 ,that is the point ,i wish to show you1 and of that there can be no dispute4 ,whether or not ,christianity be the purer for lacking the service of art1 is disputable--and ,i do not mean now to begin the dispute2 but that art is the impurer for not being in the service of ,christianity1 is indisputable1 and that is the main point ,i have now to do with4 #abb4 ,perhaps there are some of you here who would not allow that the religion of the thirteenth century was ,christianity4 ,be it so2 still is the statement true1 which is all that is necessary for me now to prove1 that art was great because it was devoted to such religion as then existed4 ,grant that ,roman ,catholicism was not ,christianity--grant it1 if you will1 to be the same thing as old heathenism--and still ,i say to you1 whatever it was1 men lived and died by it1 the ruling thought of all their thoughts2 and just as classical art was greatest in building to its gods1 so mediaeval art was great in building to its gods1 and modern art is not great1 because it builds to no ,god4 ,you have1 for instance1 in your ,edinburgh ,library1 a ,bible of the thirteenth century1 the ,latin ,bible1 commonly known as the ,vulgate4 ,it contains the ,old and ,new ,testaments1 complete1 besides the books of ,maccabees1 the ,wisdom of ,solomon1 the books of ,judith1 ,baruch1 and ,tobit4 ,the whole is written in the most beautiful black-letter hand1 and each book begins with an illuminated letter1 containing three or four figures1 illustrative of the book which it begins4 ,now1 whether this were done in the service of true ,christianity or not1 the simple fact is1 that here is a man's life-time taken up in writing and ornamenting a ,bible1 as the sole end of his art2 and that doing this1 either in a book or on a wall1 was the common artist's life at the time2 that the constant ,bible reading and ,bible thinking which this work involved1 made a man serious and thoughtful1 and a good workman1 because he was always expressing those feelings which1 whether right or wrong1 were the groundwork of his whole being4 ,now1 about the year #aejj1 this entire system was changed4 ,instead of the life of ,christ1 men had1 for the most part1 to paint the lives of ,bacchus and ,venus2 and if you walk through any public gallery of pictures by the great masters1 as they are called1 you will indeed find here and there what is called a ,holy ,family1 painted for the sake of drawing pretty children1 or a pretty woman2 but for the most part you will find nothing but ,floras1 ,pomonas1 ,satyrs1 ,graces1 ,bacchanals1 and ,banditti4 ,now1 you will not declare--you cannot believe--that ,angelico painting the life of ,christ1 ,benozzo painting the life of ,abraham1 ,ghirlandajo painting the life of the ,virgin1 ,giotto painting the life of ,st4 ,francis1 were worse employed1 or likely to produce a less healthy art1 than ,titian painting the loves of ,venus and ,adonis1 than ,correggio painting the naked ,antiope1 than ,salvator painting the slaughters of the thirty years' war8 ,if you will not let me call the one kind of labor ,christian1 and the other unchristian1 at least you will let me call the one moral1 and the other immoral1 and that is all ,i ask you to admit4 #abc4 ,now observe1 hitherto ,i have been telling you what you may feel inclined to doubt or dispute2 and ,i must leave you to consider the subject at your leisure4 ,but henceforward ,i tell you plain facts1 which admit neither of doubt nor dispute by any one who will take the pains to acquaint himself with their subject-matter4 ,when the entire purpose of art was moral teaching1 it naturally took truth for its first object1 and beauty1 and the pleasure resulting from beauty1 only for its second4 ,but when it lost all purpose of moral teaching1 it as naturally took beauty for its first object1 and truth for its second4 ,that is to say1 in all they did1 the old artists endeavored1 in one way or another1 to express the real facts of the subject or event1 this being their chief business3 and the question they first asked themselves was always1 how would this thing1 or that1 actually have occurred8 what would this person1 or that1 have done under the circumstances8 and then1 having formed their conception1 they work it out with only a secondary regard to grace or beauty1 while a modern painter invariably thinks of the grace and beauty of his work first1 and unites afterwards as much truth as he can with its conventional graces4 ,i will give you a single strong instance to make my meaning plainer4 ,in ,orcagna's great fresco of the ,triumph of ,death1 one of the incidents is that three kings1#ce when out hunting1 are met by a spirit1 which1 desiring them to follow it1 leads them to a churchyard1 and points out to them1 in open coffins1 three bodies of kings such as themselves1 in the last stages of corruption4 ,now a modern artist1 representing this1 would have endeavored dimly and faintly to suggest the appearance of the dead bodies1 and would have made1 or attempted to make1 the countenances of the three kings variously and solemnly expressive of thought4 ,this would be in his1 or our1 view1 a poetical and tasteful treatment of the subject4 ,but ,orcagna disdains both poetry and taste2 he wants the facts only2 he wishes to give the spectator the same lesson that the kings had2 and therefore1 instead of concealing the dead bodies1 he paints them with the most fearful detail4 ,and then1 he does not consider what the three kings might most gracefully do4 ,he considers only what they actually in all probability would have done4 ,he makes them looking at the coffins with a startled stare1 and one holding his nose4 ,this is an extreme instance2 but you are not to suppose it is because ,orcagna had naturally a coarse or prosaic mind4 ,where he felt that thoughtfulness and beauty could properly be introduced1 as in his circles of saints and prophets1 no painter of the ,middle ,ages is so grand4 ,i can give you no better proof of this1 than the one fact that ,michael ,angelo borrowed from him openly--borrowed from him in the principal work which he ever executed1 the ,last ,judgment1 and borrowed from him the principal figure in that work4 ,but it is just because ,orcagna was so firmly and unscrupulously true1 that he had the power of being so great when he chose4 ,his arrow went straight to the mark4 ,it was not that he did not love beauty1 but he loved truth first4 ,footnote #ce3 ,this incident is not of ,orcagna's invention1 it is variously represented in much earlier art4 ,there is a curious and graphic drawing of it1 circa #acjj1 in the ,,ms4 ,arundel #hc1 ,brit4 ,mus41 in which the three dead persons are walking1 and are met by three queens1 who severally utter the sentences1 ,ich am aferd4 ,lo1 whet ich se8 ,me thinketh hit beth develes thre4 ,to which the dead bodies answer-- ,ich wes wel fair4 ,such scheltou be4 ,for ,godes love1 be wer by me4 ,it is curious1 that though the dresses of the living persons1 and the ,i was well fair of the first dead speaker1 seem to mark them distinctly to be women1 some longer legends below are headed primus rex mortuus1 etc4 #abd4 ,so it was with all the men of that time4 ,no painters ever had more power of conceiving graceful form1 or more profound devotion to the beautiful2 but all these gifts and affections are kept sternly subordinate to their moral purpose2 and1 so far as their powers and knowledge went1 they either painted from nature things as they were1 or from imagination things as they must have been4 ,i do not mean that they reached any imitative resemblance to nature4 ,they had neither skill to do it1 nor care to do it4 ,their art was conventional and imperfect1 but they considered it only as a language wherein to convey the knowledge of certain facts2 it was perfect enough for that2 and though always reaching on to greater attainments1 they never suffered their imperfections to disturb and check them in their immediate purposes4 ,and this mode of treating all subjects was persisted in by the greatest men until the close of the fifteenth century4 #abe4 ,now so justly have the ,pre-,raphaelites chosen their time and name1 that the great change which clouds the career of mediaeval art was affected1 not only in ,raphael's time1 but by ,raphael's own practice1 and by his practice in the very center of his available life4 ,you remember1 doubtless1 what high ground we have for placing the beginning of human intellectual strength at about the age of twelve years4#cf ,assume1 therefore1 this period for the beginning of ,raphael's strength4 ,he died at thirty-seven4 ,and in his twenty-fifth year1 one half-year only past the precise center of his available life1 he was sent for to ,rome1 to decorate the ,vatican for ,pope ,julius ,,ii41 and having until that time worked exclusively in the ancient and stern mediaeval manner1 he1 in the first chamber which he decorated in that palace1 wrote upon its walls the ,mene1 ,tekel1 ,upharsin of the ,arts of ,christianity4 ,footnote #cf3 ,luke ii4 #db1 #di4 ,and he wrote it thus3 ,on one wall of that chamber he placed a picture of the ,world or ,kingdom of ,theology1 presided over by ,christ4 ,and on the side wall of that same chamber he placed the ,world or ,kingdom of ,poetry1 presided over by ,apollo4 ,and from that spot1 and from that hour1 the intellect and the art of ,italy date their degradation4 #abf4 ,observe1 however1 the significance of this fact is not in the mere use of the figure of the heathen god to indicate the domain of poetry4 ,such a symbolical use had been made of the figures of heathen deities in the best times of ,christian art4 ,but it is in the fact1 that being called to ,rome especially to adorn the palace of the so-called head of the ,church1 and called as the chief representative of the ,christian artists of his time1 ,raphael had neither religion nor originality enough to trace the spirit of poetry and the spirit of philosophy to the inspiration of the true ,god1 as well as that of theology2 but that1 on the contrary1 he elevated the creations of fancy on the one wall1 to the same rank as the objects of faith upon the other2 that in deliberate1 balanced opposition to the ,rock of the ,mount ,zion1 he reared the rock of ,parnassus1 and the rock of the ,acropolis2 that1 among the masters of poetry we find him enthroning ,petrarch and ,pindar1 but not ,isaiah nor ,david1 and for lords over the domain of philosophy we find the masters of the school of ,athens1 but neither of those greater masters by the last of whom that school was rebuked1--those who received their wisdom from heaven itself1 in the vision of ,gibeon1#cg and the lightning of ,damascus4 ,footnote #cg3 #a ,kings iii4 #e4 #abg4 ,the doom of the arts of ,europe went forth from that chamber1 and it was brought about in great part by the very excellencies of the man who had thus marked the commencement of decline4 ,the perfection of execution and the beauty of feature which were attained in his works1 and in those of his great contemporaries1 rendered finish of execution and beauty of form the chief objects of all artists2 and thenceforward execution was looked for rather than thought1 and beauty rather than veracity4 ,and as ,i told you1 these are the two secondary causes of the decline of art2 the first being the loss of moral purpose4 ,pray note them clearly4 ,in mediaeval art1 thought is the first thing1 execution the second2 in modern art execution is the first thing1 and thought the second4 ,and again1 in mediaeval art1 truth is first1 beauty second2 in modern art1 beauty is first1 truth second4 ,the mediaeval principles led up to ,raphael1 and the modern principles lead down from him4 #abh4 ,now1 first1 let me give you a familiar illustration of the difference with respect to execution4 ,suppose you have to teach two children drawing1 one thoroughly clever and active-minded1 the other dull and slow2 and you put before them ,jullien's chalk studies of heads--etudes a deux crayons--and desire them to be copied4 ,the dull child will slowly do your bidding1 blacken his paper and rub it white again1 and patiently and painfully1 in the course of three or four years1 attain to the performance of a chalk head1 not much worse than his original1 but still of less value than the paper it is drawn upon4 ,but the clever child will not1 or will only by force1 consent to this discipline4 ,he finds other means of expressing himself with his pencil somehow or another2 and presently you find his paper covered with sketches of his grandfather and grandmother1 and uncles1 and cousins--sketches of the room1 and the house1 and the cat1 and the dog1 and the country outside1 and everything in the world he can set his eyes on2 and he gets on1 and even his child's work has a value in it--a truth which makes it worth keeping2 no one knows how precious1 perhaps1 that portrait of his grandfather may be1 if any one has but the sense to keep it till the time when the old man can be seen no more up the lawn1 nor by the wood4 ,that child is working in the ,middle-,age spirit--the other in the modern spirit4 #abi4 ,but there is something still more striking in the evils which have resulted from the modern regardlessness of truth4 ,consider1 for instance1 its effect on what is called historical painting4 ,what do you at present mean by historical painting8 ,now-a-days it means the endeavoring1 by the power of imagination1 to portray some historical event of past days4 ,but in the ,middle ,ages1 it meant representing the acts of their own days2 and that is the only historical painting worth a straw4 ,of all the wastes of time and sense which ,modernism has invented--and they are many--none are so ridiculous as this endeavor to represent past history4 ,what do you suppose our descendants will care for our imaginations of the events of former days8 ,suppose the ,greeks1 instead of representing their own warriors as they fought at ,marathon1 had left us nothing but their imaginations of ,egyptian battles2 and suppose the ,italians1 in like manner1 instead of portraits of ,can ,grande and ,dante1 or of ,leo the ,tenth and ,raphael1 had left us nothing but imaginary portraits of ,pericles and ,miltiades8 ,what fools we should have thought them6 how bitterly we should have been provoked with their folly6 ,and that is precisely what our descendants will feel towards us1 so far as our grand historical and classical schools are concerned4 ,what do we care1 they will say1 what those nineteenth century people fancied about ,greek and ,roman history6 ,if they had left us a few plain and rational sculptures and pictures of their own battles1 and their own men1 in their every-day dress1 we should have thanked them4 ,well1 but1 you will say1 we have left them portraits of our great men1 and paintings of our great battles4 ,yes1 you have indeed1 and that is the only historical painting that you either have1 or can have2 but you don't call that historical painting4 ,you don't thank the men who do it2 you look down upon them and dissuade them from it1 and tell them they don't belong to the grand schools4 ,and yet they are the only true historical painters1 and the only men who will produce any effect on their own generation1 or on any other4 ,wilkie was a historical painter1 ,chantrey a historical sculptor1 because they painted1 or carved1 the veritable things and men they saw1 not men and things as they believed they might have been1 or should have been4 ,but no one tells such men they are historical painters1 and they are discontented with what they do2 and poor ,wilkie must needs travel to see the grand school1 and imitate the grand school1 and ruin himself4 ,and you have had multitudes of other painters ruined1 from the beginning1 by that grand school4 ,there was ,etty1 naturally as good a painter as ever lived1 but no one told him what to paint1 and he studied the antique1 and the grand schools1 and painted dances of nymphs in red and yellow shawls to the end of his days4 ,much good may they do you6 ,he is gone to the grave1 a lost mind4 ,there was ,flaxman1 another naturally great man1 with as true an eye for nature as ,raphael1--he stumbles over the blocks of the antique statues--wanders in the dark valley of their ruins to the end of his days4 ,he has left you a few outlines of muscular men straddling and frowning behind round shields4 ,much good may they do you6 ,another lost mind4 ,and of those who are lost namelessly1 who have not strength enough even to make themselves known1 the poor pale students who lie buried forever in the abysses of the great schools1 no account can be rendered2 they are numberless4 #acj4 ,and the wonderful thing is1 that of all these men whom you now have come to call the great masters1 there was not one who confessedly did not paint his own present world1 plainly and truly4 ,homer sang of what he saw2 ,phidias carved what he saw2 ,raphael painted the men of his own time in their own caps and mantles2 and every man who has arisen to eminence in modern times has done so altogether by his working in their way1 and doing the things he saw4 ,how did ,reynolds rise8 ,not by painting ,greek women1 but by painting the glorious little living ,ladies this1 and ,ladies that1 of his own time4 ,how did ,hogarth rise8 ,not by painting ,athenian follies1 but ,london follies4 ,who are the men who have made an impression upon you yourselves--upon your own age8 ,i suppose the most popular painter of the day is ,landseer4 ,do you suppose he studied dogs and eagles out of the ,elgin ,marbles8 ,and yet in the very face of these plain1 incontrovertible1 all-visible facts1 we go on from year to year with the base system of ,academy teaching1 in spite of which every one of these men has risen3 ,i say in spite of the entire method and aim of our art-teaching4 ,it destroys the greater number of its pupils altogether2 it hinders and paralyzes the greatest4 ,there is not a living painter whose eminence is not in spite of everything he has been taught from his youth upwards1 and who1 whatever his eminence may be1 has not suffered much injury in the course of his victory4 ,for observe3 this love of what is called ideality or beauty in preference to truth1 operates not only in making us choose the past rather than the present for our subjects1 but it makes us falsify the present when we do take it for our subject4 ,i said just now that portrait-painters were historical painters2--so they are2 but not good ones1 because not faithful ones4 ,the beginning and end of modern portraiture is adulation4 ,the painters cannot live but by flattery2 we should desert them if they spoke honestly4 ,and therefore we can have no good portraiture2 for in the striving after that which is not in their model1 they lose the inner and deeper nobleness which is in their model4 ,i saw not long ago1 for the first time1 the portrait of a man whom ,i knew well--a young man1 but a religious man--and one who had suffered much from sickness4 ,the whole dignity of his features and person depended upon the expression of serene1 yet solemn1 purpose sustaining a feeble frame2 and the painter1 by way of flattering him1 strengthened him1 and made him athletic in body1 gay in countenance1 idle in gesture2 and the whole power and being of the man himself were lost4 ,and this is still more the case with our public portraits4 ,you have a portrait1 for instance1 of the ,duke of ,wellington at the end of the ,north ,bridge--one of the thousand equestrian statues of ,modernism--studied from the show-riders of the amphitheater1 with their horses on their hind-legs in the saw-dust4#ch ,do you suppose that was the way the ,duke sat when your destinies depended on him8 when the foam hung from the lips of his tired horse1 and its wet limbs were dashed with the bloody slime of the battle-field1 and he himself sat anxious in his quietness1 grieved in his fearlessness1 as he watched1 scythe-stroke by scythe-stroke1 the gathering in of the harvest of death8 ,you would have done something had you thus left his image in the enduring iron1 but nothing now4 ,footnote #ch3 ,i intended this last sentence of course to apply to the thousand statues1 not definitely to the one in immediate question1 which1 though tainted with the modern affectation1 and the nearest example of it to which ,i could refer an ,edinburgh audience1 is the work of a most promising sculptor2 and was indeed so far executed on the principles asserted in the text1 that the ,duke gave ,mr4 ,steele a sitting on horse-back1 in order that his mode of riding might be accurately represented4 ,this1 however1 does not render the following remarks in the text nugatory1 as it may easily be imagined that the action of the ,duke1 exhibiting his riding in his own grounds1 would be different from his action1 or inaction1 when watching the course of a battle4 ,i must also make a most definite exception in favor of ,marochetti1 who seems to me a thoroughly great sculptor2 and whose statue of ,coeur de ,lion1 though1 according to the principle just stated1 not to be considered a historical work1 is an ideal work of the highest beauty and value4 ,its erection in front of ,westminster ,hall will tend more to educate the public eye and mind with respect to art1 than anything we have done in ,london for centuries4 99 99 99 99 99 ,april #bast1 #ahed4--;,i stop the press in order to insert the following paragraph from to-day's ,times3--,,the ,,statue ,,of ,,coeur ,,de ,,lion4--,yesterday morning a number of workmen were engaged in pulling down the cast which was placed in ,new ,palace ,yard of the colossal equestrian statue of ,richard ,coeur de ,lion4 ,sir ,c4 ,barry was1 we believe1 opposed to the cast remaining there any longer1 and to the putting up of the statue itself on the same site1 because it did not harmonize with the building4 ,during the day the horse and figure were removed1 and before night the pedestal was demolished and taken away4 #aca4 ,but the time has at last come for all this to be put an end to2 and nothing can well be more extraordinary than the way in which the men have risen who are to do it4 ,pupils in the same schools1 receiving precisely the same instruction which for so long a time has paralyzed every one of our painters1--these boys agree in disliking to copy the antique statues set before them4 ,they copy them as they are bid1 and they copy them better than any one else2 they carry off prize after prize1 and yet they hate their work4 ,at last they are admitted to study from the life2 they find the life very different from the antique1 and say so4 ,their teachers tell them the antique is the best1 and they mustn't copy the life4 ,they agree among themselves that they like the life1 and that copy it they will4 ,they do copy it faithfully1 and their masters forthwith declare them to be lost men4 ,their fellow-students hiss them whenever they enter the room4 ,they can't help it2 they join hands and tacitly resist both the hissing and the instruction4 ,accidentally1 a few prints of the works of ,giotto1 a few casts from those of ,ghiberti1 fall into their hands1 and they see in these something they never saw before--something intensely and everlastingly true4 ,they examine farther into the matter2 they discover for themselves the greater part of what ,i have laid before you to-night2 they form themselves into a body1 and enter upon that crusade which has hitherto been victorious4 ,and which will be absolutely and triumphantly victorious4 ,the great mistake which has hitherto prevented the public mind from fully going with them must soon be corrected4 ,that mistake was the supposition that1 instead of wishing to recur to the principles of the early ages1 these men wished to bring back the ignorance of the early ages4 ,this notion1 grounded first on some hardness in their earlier works1 which resulted--as it must always result--from the downright and earnest effort to paint nature as in a looking-glass1 was fostered partly by the jealousy of their beaten competitors1 and partly by the pure1 perverse1 and hopeless ignorance of the whole body of art-critics1 so called1 connected with the press4 ,no notion was ever more baseless or more ridiculous4 ,it was asserted that the ,pre-,raphaelites did not draw well1 in the face of the fact1 that the principal member of their body1 from the time he entered the schools of the ,academy1 had literally encumbered himself with the medals given as prizes for drawing4 ,it was asserted that they did not draw in perspective1 by men who themselves knew no more of perspective than they did of astrology2 it was asserted that they sinned against the appearances of nature1 by men who had never drawn so much as a leaf or a blossom from nature in their lives4 ,and1 lastly1 when all these calumnies or absurdities would tell no more1 and it began to be forced upon men's unwilling belief that the style of the ,pre-,raphaelites was true and was according to nature1 the last forgery invented respecting them is1 that they copy photographs4 ,you observe how completely this last piece of malice defeats all the rest4 ,it admits they are true to nature1 though only that it may deprive them of all merit in being so4 ,but it may itself be at once refuted by the bold challenge to their opponents to produce a ,pre-,raphaelite picture1 or anything like one1 by themselves copying a photograph4 #acb4 ,let me at once clear your minds from all these doubts1 and at once contradict all these calumnies4 ,pre-,raphaelitism has but one principle1 that of absolute1 uncompromising truth in all that it does1 obtained by working everything1 down to the most minute detail1 from nature1 and from nature only4#ci ,every ,pre-,raphaelite landscape background is painted to the last touch1 in the open air1 from the thing itself4 ,every ,pre-,raphaelite figure1 however studied in expression1 is a true portrait of some living person4 ,every minute accessory is painted in the same manner4 ,and one of the chief reasons for the violent opposition with which the school has been attacked by other artists1 is the enormous cost of care and labor which such a system demands from those who adopt it1 in contradistinction to the present slovenly and imperfect style4 ,footnote #ci3 ,or1 where imagination is necessarily trusted to1 by always endeavoring to conceive a fact as it really was likely to have happened1 rather than as it most prettily might have happened4 ,the various members of the school are not all equally severe in carrying out its principles1 some of them trusting their memory or fancy very far2 only all agreeing in the effort to make their memories so accurate as to seem like portraiture1 and their fancy so probable as to seem like memory4 #acc4 ,this is the main ,pre-,raphaelite principle4 ,but the battle which its supporters have to fight is a hard one2 and for that battle they have been fitted by a very peculiar character4 ,you perceive that the principal resistance they have to make is to that spurious beauty1 whose attractiveness had tempted men to forget1 or to despise1 the more noble quality of sincerity3 and in order at once to put them beyond the power of temptation from this beauty1 they are1 as a body1 characterized by a total absence of sensibility to the ordinary and popular forms of artistic gracefulness2 while1 to all that still lower kind of prettiness1 which regulates the disposition of our scenes upon the stage1 and which appears in our lower art1 as in our annuals1 our commonplace portraits1 and statuary1 the ,pre-,raphaelites are not only dead1 but they regard it with a contempt and aversion approaching to disgust4 ,this character is absolutely necessary to them in the present time2 but it1 of course1 occasionally renders their work comparatively unpleasing4 ,as the school becomes less aggressive1 and more authoritative--which it will do--they will enlist into their ranks men who will work1 mainly1 upon their principles1 and yet embrace more of those characters which are generally attractive1 and this great ground of offense will be removed4 #acd4 ,again3 you observe that as landscape painters1 their principles must1 in great part1 confine them to mere foreground work2 and singularly enough1 that they may not be tempted away from this work1 they have been born with comparatively little enjoyment of those evanescent effects and distant sublimities which nothing but the memory can arrest1 and nothing but a daring conventionalism portray4 ,but for this work they are not now needed4 ,turner1 the first and greatest of the ,pre-,raphaelites1 has done it already2 he1 though his capacity embraced everything1 and though he would sometimes1 in his foregrounds1 paint the spots upon a dead trout1 and the dyes upon a butterfly's wing1 yet for the most part delighted to begin at that very point where the other branches of ,pre-,raphaelitism become powerless4 #ace4 ,lastly4 ,the habit of constantly carrying everything up to the utmost point of completion deadens the ,pre-,raphaelites in general to the merits of men who1 with an equal love of truth up to a certain point1 yet express themselves habitually with speed and power1 rather than with finish1 and give abstracts of truth rather than total truth4 ,probably to the end of time artists will more or less be divided into these classes1 and it will be impossible to make men like ,millais understand the merits of men like ,tintoret2 but this is the more to be regretted because the ,pre-,raphaelites have enormous powers of imagination1 as well as of realization1 and do not yet themselves know of how much they would be capable1 if they sometimes worked on a larger scale1 and with a less laborious finish4 #acf4 ,with all their faults1 their pictures are1 since ,turner's death1 the best--incomparably the best--on the walls of the ,royal ,academy2 and such works as ,mr4 ,hunt's ,claudio and ,isabella have never been rivaled1 in some respects never approached1 at any other period of art4 ,this ,i believe to be a most candid statement of all their faults and all their deficiencies2 not such1 you perceive1 as are likely to arrest their progress4 ,the magna est veritas was never more sure of accomplishment than by these men4 ,their adversaries have no chance with them4 ,they will gradually unite their influence with whatever is true or powerful in the reactionary art of other countries2 and on their works such a school will be founded as shall justify the third age of the world's civilization1 and render it as great in creation as it has been in discovery4 #acg4 ,and now let me remind you but of one thing more4 ,as you examine into the career of historical painting1 you will be more and more struck with the fact ,i have this evening stated to you1--that none was ever truly great but that which represented the living forms and daily deeds of the people among whom it arose2--that all precious historical work records1 not the past1 but the present4 ,remember1 therefore1 that it is not so much in buying pictures1 as in being pictures1 that you can encourage a noble school4 ,the best patronage of art is not that which seeks for the pleasures of sentiment in a vague ideality1 nor for beauty of form in a marble image2 but that which educates your children into living heroes1 and binds down the flights and the fondnesses of the heart into practical duty and faithful devotion4 ,,addenda ,,to ,,the ,,fourth ,,lecture4 #ach4 ,i could not enter1 in a popular lecture1 upon one intricate and difficult question1 closely connected with the subject of ,pre-,raphaelitism--namely1 the relation of invention to observation2 and composition to imitation4 ,it is still less a question to be discussed in the compass of a note2 and ,i must defer all careful examination of it to a future opportunity4 ,nevertheless1 it is impossible to leave altogether unanswered the first objection which is now most commonly made to the ,pre-,raphaelite work1 namely1 that the principle of it seems adverse to all exertion of imaginative power4 ,indeed1 such an objection sounds strangely on the lips of a public who have been in the habit of purchasing1 for hundreds of pounds1 small squares of ,dutch canvas1 containing only servile imitations of the coarsest nature4 ,it is strange that an imitation of a cow's head by ,paul ,potter1 or of an old woman's by ,ostade1 or of a scene of tavern debauchery by ,teniers1 should be purchased and proclaimed for high art1 while the rendering of the most noble expressions of human feeling in ,hunt's ,isabella1 or of the loveliest ,english landscape1 haunted by sorrow1 in ,millais' ,ophelia1 should be declared puerile4 ,but1 strange though the utterance of it be1 there is some weight in the objection4 ,it is true that so long as the ,pre-,raphaelites only paint from nature1 however carefully selected and grouped1 their pictures can never have the characters of the highest class of compositions4 ,but1 on the other hand1 the shallow and conventional arrangements commonly called compositions by the artists of the present day1 are infinitely farther from great art than the most patient work of the ,pre-,raphaelites4 ,that work is1 even in its humblest form1 a secure foundation1 capable of infinite superstructure2 a reality of true value1 as far as it reaches1 while the common artistical effects and groupings are a vain effort at superstructure without foundation--utter negation and fallacy from beginning to end4 #aci4 ,but more than this1 the very faithfulness of the ,pre-,raphaelites arises from the redundance of their imaginative power4 ,not only can all the members of the school compose a thousand times better than the men who pretend to look down upon them1 but ,i question whether even the greatest men of old times possessed more exhaustless invention than either ,millais or ,rossetti2 and it is partly the very ease with which they invent which leads them to despise invention4 ,men who have no imagination1 but have learned merely to produce a spurious resemblance of its results by the recipes of composition1 are apt to value themselves mightily on their concoctive science2 but the man whose mind a thousand living imaginations haunt1 every hour1 is apt to care too little for them2 and to long for the perfect truth which he finds is not to be come at so easily4 ,and though ,i may perhaps hesitatingly admit that it is possible to love this truth of reality too intensely1 yet ,i have no hesitation in declaring that there is no hope for those who despise it1 and that the painter1 whoever he be1 who despises the pictures already produced by the ,pre-,raphaelites1 has himself no capacity of becoming a great painter of any kind4 ,paul ,veronese and ,tintoret themselves1 without desiring to imitate the ,pre-,raphaelite work1 would have looked upon it with deep respect1 as ,john ,bellini looked on that of ,albert ,duerer2 none but the ignorant could be unconscious of its truth1 and none but the insincere regardless of it4 #adj4 ,how far it is possible for men educated on the severest ,pre-,raphaelite principles to advance from their present style into that of the great schools of composition1 ,i do not care to inquire1 for at this period such an advance is certainly not desirable4 ,of great compositions we have enough1 and more than enough1 and it would be well for the world if it were willing to take some care of those it has4 ,of pure and manly truth1 of stern statement of the things done and seen around us daily1 we have hitherto had nothing4 ,and in art1 as in all other things1 besides the literature of which it speaks1 that sentence of ,carlyle is inevitably and irreversibly true3--,day after day1 looking at the high destinies which yet await literature1 which literature will ere long address herself with more decisiveness than ever to fulfill1 it grows clearer to us that the proper task of literature lies in the domain of ,,belief1 within which1 poetic fiction1 as it is charitably named1 will have to take a quite new figure1 if allowed a settlement there4 ,whereby were it not reasonable to prophesy that this exceeding great multitude of novel writers and such like1 must1 in a new generation1 gradually do one of two things1 either retire into nurseries1 and work for children1 minors1 and semifatuous persons of both sexes1 or else1 what were far better1 sweep their novel fabric into the dust cart1 and betake them1 with such faculty as they have1 to understand and record what is true1 of which surely there is and forever will be a whole infinitude unknown to us1 of infinite importance to us8 ,poetry will more and more come to be understood as nothing but higher knowledge1 and the only genuine ,romance for grown persons1 ,reality4 #ada4 ,as ,i was copying this sentence1 a pamphlet was put into my hand1 written by a clergyman1 denouncing ,woe1 woe1 woe6 to exceedingly young men of stubborn instincts1 calling themselves ,pre-,raphaelites4#dj ,footnote #dj3 ,art1 its ,constitution and ,capacities1 etc4 ,by the ,rev4 ,edward ,young1 ,m4,a4 ,the phrase exceedingly young men of stubborn instincts1 being twice quoted 7carefully excluding the context7 from my pamphlet on ,pre-,raphaelitism4 ,i thank ,god that the ,pre-,raphaelites are young1 and that strength is still with them1 and life1 with all the war of it1 still in front of them4 ,yet ,everett ,millais is this year of the exact age at which ,raphael painted the ,disputa1 his greatest work2 ,rossetti and ,hunt are both of them older still--nor is there one member of the body so young as ,giotto1 when he was chosen from among the painters of ,italy to decorate the ,vatican4 ,but ,italy1 in her great period1 knew her great men1 and did not despise their youth4 ,it is reserved for ,england to insult the strength of her noblest children--to wither their warm enthusiasm early into the bitterness of patient battle1 and leave to those whom she should have cherished and aided1 no hope but in resolution1 no refuge but in disdain4 #adb4 ,indeed it is woful1 when the young usurp the place1 or despise the wisdom1 of the aged2 and among the many dark signs of these times1 the disobedience and insolence of youth are among the darkest4 ,but with whom is the fault8 ,youth never yet lost its modesty where age had not lost its honor2 nor did childhood ever refuse its reverence1 except where age had forgotten correction4 ,the cry1 ,go up1 thou bald head1 will never be heard in the land which remembers the precept1 ,see that ye despise not one of these little ones2 and although indeed youth may become despicable1 when its eager hope is changed into presumption1 and its progressive power into arrested pride1 there is something more despicable still1 in the old age which has learned neither judgment nor gentleness1 which is weak without charity1 and cold without discretion4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's ,note3 ,while obvious printer's errors have been corrected1 inconsistencies and unusual spelling were preserved as in the original4