agnitude and counting upwards, they will
read--

_k_ 1, 2, 3,
_l_ 3, 2, 1,
_m_ 1, 3, 2,
_n_ 2, 3, 1,
_o_ 2, 1, 3,
_p_ 3, 1, 2.

_m_ and _n_, which are the _Matterhorn line_, are the most beautiful and
important of all the twelve; _k_ and _l_ the next; _o_ and _p_ are used
only for certain conditions of flower carving on the surface. The
reverses (dark) of _k_ and _l_ are also of considerable service; the
other four hardly ever used in good work.

Sec. XII. If we were to add a fourth curve to the component series, we
should have forty-eight more cornices: but there is no use in pursuing
the system further, as such arrangements are very rare and easily
resolved into the simpler types with certain arbitrary additions fitted
to their special place; and, in most cases, distinctly separate from the
main curve, as in the inner line of No. 14, which is a form of the type
_e_, the longest curve, _i.e._, the lowest, having deepest curvature,
and each limb opposed by a short contrary curve at its extremities, the
convex limb by a concave, the concave by a convex.

Sec. XIII. Such, then, are the great families of profile lines into
which all cornices and capitals may be divided; but their best examples
unite two such profiles in a mode which we cannot understand till we
consider the further ornament with which the profiles are charged. And
in doing this we must, for the sake of clearness, consider, first the
nature of the designs themselves, and next the mode of cutting them.

[Illustration: Plate XVI.
CORNICE DECORATION.]

Sec. XIV. In Plate XVI., opposite, I have thrown together a few of the
most characteristic mediaeval examples of the treatment of the simplest
cornice profiles: the uppermost, _a_, is the pure root of cornices from
St. Mark's. The second, _d_, is the Christian Doric cornice, here
lettered _d_ in order to avoid confusion, its profile being _d_ of Plate
XV. in bold development, and here seen on the left-hand side, truly
drawn, though filled up with the ornament to show the mode in which the
angle is turned. This is also from St. Mark's. The third, _b_, is _b_ of
Plate XV., the pattern being inlaid in black because its office was in
the interior of St. Mark's, where it was too dark to see sculptured
ornament at the required distance. (The other two simple profiles, _a_
and _c_ of Plate XV., would be decorated in the same manner, but require
no example here, for the profile _a_