e town, which were his principal subject; the form of
the Pilate being seen only as a rosy shadow in the far off sky. We
cannot, however, yet estimate the importance, in his mind, of this
continuity of descending curve, until we come to the examination of the
lower hill _flanks_, hitherto having been concerned only with their
rocky summits; and before we leave those summits, or rather the harder
rocks which compose them, there is yet another condition of those rocks
to be examined; and that the condition which is commonly the most
interesting, namely, the Precipice. To this inquiry, however, we had
better devote a separate chapter.

FOOTNOTES

[66] So called from the mouldering nature of its rocks. They are
slaty crystallines, but unusually fragile.

[67] The materials removed from the slope are spread over the plain
or valley below. A nearly equal quantity is supposed to be removed
from the other side; but besides this _removed_ mass, the materials
crumble heavily from above, and form the concave curve.

[68] The lines are a little too straight in their continuations, the
engraver having cut some of the curvature out of their thickness,
thinking I had drawn them too coarsely. But I have chosen this
coarsely lined example, and others like it, following, because I
wish to accustom the reader to distinguish between the mere fineness
of instrument in the artist's hand, and the precision of the line he
draws. Give Titian a blunt pen, and still Titian's line will be a
noble one: a tyro, with a pen well mended, may draw more neatly; but
his lines ought to be discerned from Titian's, if we understand
drawing. Every line in this woodcut of Durer's is _refined_; and
that in the noblest sense. Whether broad or fine does not matter,
the lines are _right_; and the most delicate false line is evermore
to be despised, in presence of the coarsest faithful one.

[69] Not absolutely on the meeting of the curves in one point, but
on their radiating with some harmonious succession of difference in
direction. The difference between lines which are in true harmony of
radiation, and lines which are not, can, in complicated masses, only
be detected by a trained eye; yet it is often the chief difference
between good and bad drawing. A cluster of six or seven black plumes
forming the wing of one of the cherubs in Titian's Assumption, at
Ve