s terrestrial ball,
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines."
And Wordsworth, in one of his minor poems, on leaving Italy:
"My thoughts become bright like yon edging of pines
On the steep's lofty verge--how it blackened the air!
But, touched from behind by the sun, it now shines
With threads that seem part of his own silver hair."
[72] Some valuable remarks on this subject will be found in a notice
of the "Seven Lamps" in the British Quarterly for August, 1849. I
think, however, the writer attaches too great importance to one out
of many ornamental necessities.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE ANGLE.
Sec. I. We have now examined the treatment and specific kinds of ornament
at our command. We have lastly to note the fittest places for their
disposal. Not but that all kinds of ornament are used in all places; but
there are some parts of the building, which, without ornament, are more
painful than others, and some which wear ornament more gracefully than
others; so that, although an able architect will always be finding out
some new and unexpected modes of decoration, and fitting his ornament
into wonderful places where it is least expected, there are,
nevertheless, one or two general laws which may be noted respecting
every one of the parts of a building, laws not (except a few) imperative
like those of construction, but yet generally expedient, and good to be
understood, if it were only that we might enjoy the brilliant methods in
which they are sometimes broken. I shall note, however, only a few of
the simplest; to trace them into their ramifications, and class in due
order the known or possible methods of decoration for each part of a
building, would alone require a large volume, and be, I think, a
somewhat useless work; for there is often a high pleasure in the very
unexpectedness of the ornament, which would be destroyed by too
elaborate an arrangement of its kinds.
Sec. II. I think that the reader must, by this time, so thoroughly
understand the connection of the parts of a building, that I may class
together, in treating of decoration, several parts which I kept separate
in speaking of construction. Thus I shall put under one head (A) the
base of the wall and of the shaft; then (B) the wall veil and shaft
itself; then (C) the cornice and capital; then (D) the jamb and
archivolt, including the arches both over shafts and apertures, and the
jambs of
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