quenched as much light, and knowledge, and judgment as our modern
Liberals have ever displayed. I do not expect a statesman to discuss the
point of Transubstantiation betwixt Protestant and Catholic, nor to
trace the narrow lines which divide Protestant sectarians from each
other; but can any statesman that shall have taken even a cursory
glance at the face of Europe, hesitate a moment on the choice of the
Protestant religion? If he unfortunately knew nothing of its being the
true one in regard to our eternal interests, he is at least bound to see
whether it be not the best for the worldly prosperity of a people. He
may be but moderately imbued with pious zeal for the salvation of a
kingdom, but at least he will be expected to weigh the comparative
merits of religion, as of law or government; and blind, indeed, must he
be if he does not discern that, in neglecting to cherish the Protestant
faith, or in too easily yielding to any encroachments on it, he is
foregoing the use of a state engine more powerful than all the laws
which the uninspired legislators of the earth have ever promulgated, in
promoting the happiness, the peace, prosperity, and the order, the
industry, and the wealth, of a people; in forming every quality valuable
or desirable in a subject or a citizen; in sustaining the public mind at
that point of education and information that forms the best security for
the state, and the best preservative for the freedom of a people,
whether religious or political."

[Illustration: Plate XX.
WALL VEIL DECORATION.
CA' TREVISAN.]

6. RENAISSANCE ORNAMENTS.

There having been three principal styles of architecture in Venice,--the
Greek or Byzantine, the Gothic, and the Renaissance, it will be shown,
in the sequel, that the Renaissance itself is divided into three
correspondent families: Renaissance engrafted on Byzantine, which is
earliest and best; Renaissance engrafted on Gothic, which is second, and
second best; Renaissance on Renaissance, which is double darkness, and
worst of all. The palaces in which Renaissance is engrafted on Byzantine
are those noticed by Commynes: they are characterized by an
ornamentation very closely resembling, and in some cases identical with,
early Byzantine work; namely, groups of colored marble circles inclosed
in interlacing bands. I have put on the opposite page one of these
ornaments, from the Ca' Trevisan, in which a most curious and delicate