d of blue, in greater
quantity than any other color. But the waved background in this
instance, is of various shades of blue and green alternately, with one
narrow black band to give it force; the whole being intended to
represent the distant effect and color of deep grass, and the wavy line
to _express its bending motion_, just as the same symbol is used to
represent the waves of water. Then the two white clusters are
representative of the distinctly visible herbage close to the
spectator, having buds and flowers of two kinds, springing in one case
out of the midst of twisted grass, and in the other out of their own
proper leaves; the clusters being kept each so distinctly symmetrical,
as to form, when set side by side, an ornamental border of perfect
architectural severity; and yet each cluster different from the next,
and every flower, and bud, and knot of grass, varied in form and
thought. The way the mosaic tesserae are arranged, so as to give the
writhing of the grass blades round the stalks of the flowers, is
exceedingly fine.

The tree circles below are examples of still more severely conventional
forms, adopted, on principle, when the decoration is to be in white and
gold, instead of color; these ornaments being cut in white marble on the
outside of the church, and the ground laid in with gold, though
necessarily here represented, like the rest of the plate, in blue. And
it is exceedingly interesting to see how the noble workman, the moment
he is restricted to more conventional materials, retires into more
conventional forms, and reduces his various leafage into symmetry, now
nearly perfect; yet observe, in the central figure, where the symbolic
meaning of the vegetation beside the cross required it to be more
distinctly indicated, he has given it life and growth by throwing it
into unequal curves on the opposite sides.

Sec. XIX. I believe the reader will now see, that in these mosaics, which
the careless traveller is in the habit of passing by with contempt,
there is a depth of feeling and of meaning greater than in most of the
best sketches from nature of modern times; and, without entering into
any question whether these conventional representations are as good as,
under the required limitations, it was possible to render them, they are
at all events good enough completely to illustrate that mode of
symbolical expression which appeals altogether to thought, and in no
wise trusts to realization. And little