th come first, the honor
or decoration in certain intervals during their course, but most of all
in their close, so, in general, the base of the wall, which is its
beginning of labor, will bear least decoration, its body more,
especially those epochs of rest called its string courses; but its crown
or cornice most of all. Still, in some buildings, all these are
decorated richly, though the last most; and in others, when the base is
well protected and yet conspicuous, it may probably receive even more
decoration than other parts.

Sec. II. Now, the main things to be expressed in a base are its levelness
and evenness. We cannot do better than construct the several members of
the base, as developed in Fig. II., p. 55, each of a different colored
marble, so as to produce marked level bars of color all along the
foundation. This is exquisitely done in all the Italian elaborate wall
bases; that of St. Anastasia at Verona is one of the most perfect
existing, for play of color; that of Giotto's campanile is on the whole
the most beautifully finished. Then, on the vertical portions, _a_, _b_,
_c_, we may put what patterns in mosaic we please, so that they be not
too rich; but if we choose rather to have sculpture (or _must_ have it
for want of stones to inlay), then observe that all sculpture on bases
must be in panels, or it will soon be worn away, and that a plain
panelling is often good without any other ornament. The member _b_,
which in St. Mark's is subordinate, and _c_, which is expanded into a
seat, are both of them decorated with simple but exquisitely-finished
panelling, in red and white or green and white marble; and the member
_e_ is in bases of this kind very valuable, as an expression of a firm
beginning of the substance of the wall itself. This member has been of
no service to us hitherto, and was unnoticed in the chapters on
construction; but it was expressed in the figure of the wall base, on
account of its great value when the foundation is of stone and the wall
of brick (coated or not). In such cases it is always better to add the
course _e_, above the slope of the base, than abruptly to begin the
common masonry of the wall.

Sec. III. It is, however, with the member _d_, or Xb, that we are most
seriously concerned; for this being the essential feature of all bases,
and the true preparation for the wall or shaft, it is most necessary
that here, if anywhere, we should have full expression of levelness and
pre