SSANCE SIDE OF DUCAL PALACE.

In passing along the Rio del Palazzo the traveller ought especially to
observe the base of the Renaissance building, formed by alternately
depressed and raised pyramids, the depressed portions being _casts_ of
the projecting ones, which are truncated on the summits. The work cannot
be called rustication, for it is cut as sharply and delicately as a
piece of ivory, but it thoroughly answers the end which rustication
proposes, and misses: it gives the base of the building a look of
crystalline hardness, actually resembling, and that very closely, the
appearance presented by the fracture of a piece of cap quartz; while yet
the light and shade of its alternate recesses and projections are so
varied as to produce the utmost possible degree of delight to the eye,
attainable by a geometrical pattern so simple. Yet, with all this high
merit, it is not a base which could be brought into general use. Its
brilliancy and piquancy are here set off with exquisite skill by its
opposition to mouldings, in the upper part of the building, of an almost
effeminate delicacy, and its complexity is rendered delightful by its
contrast with the ruder bases of the other buildings of the city; but it
would look meagre if it were employed to sustain bolder masses above,
and would become wearisome if the eye were once thoroughly familiarized
with it by repetition.

6. CHARACTER OF THE DOGE MICHELE MOROSINI.

The following extracts from the letter of Count Charles Morosini, above
mentioned, appear to set the question at rest.

"It is our unhappy destiny that, during the glory of the Venetian
republic, no one took the care to leave us a faithful and conscientious
history: but I hardly know whether this misfortune should be laid to the
charge of the historians themselves, or of those commentators who have
destroyed their trustworthiness by new accounts of things, invented by
themselves. As for the poor Morosini, we may perhaps save his honor by
assembling a conclave of our historians, in order to receive their
united sentence; for, in this case, he would have the absolute majority
on his side, nearly all the authors bearing testimony to his love for
his country and to the magnanimity of his heart. I must tell you that
the history of Daru is not looked upon with esteem by well-informed men;
and it is said that he seems to have no other object in view than to
obscure the glory of all actions. I know not on what authori