subjected is rather a sign of
the hope of doing better things, than of want of feeling for those
already accomplished. And, in general, this careless fitting of ornament
is, in very truth, an evidence of life in the school of builders, and of
their making a due distinction between work which is to be used for
architectural effect, and work which is to possess an abstract
perfection; and it commonly shows also that the exertion of design is so
easy to them, and their fertility so inexhaustible, that they feel no
remorse in using somewhat injuriously what they can replace with so
slight an effort.

Sec. XII. It appears however questionable in the present instance,
whether, if the marbles had not been carved to his hand, the architect
would have taken the trouble to enrich them. For the execution of the rest
of the pulpit is studiously simple, and it is in this respect that its
design possesses, it seems to me, an interest to the religious spectator
greater than he will take in any other portion of the building. It is
supported, as I said, on a group of four slender shafts; itself of a
slightly oval form, extending nearly from one pillar of the nave to the
next, so as to give the preacher free room for the action of the entire
person, which always gives an unaffected impressiveness to the
eloquence of the southern nations. In the centre of its curved front, a
small bracket and detached shaft sustain the projection of a narrow
marble desk (occupying the place of a cushion in a modern pulpit), which
is hollowed out into a shallow curve on the upper surface, leaving a
ledge at the bottom of the slab, so that a book laid upon it, or rather
into it, settles itself there, opening as if by instinct, but without
the least chance of slipping to the side, or in any way moving beneath
the preacher's hands.[9] Six balls, or rather almonds, of purple marble
veined with white are set round the edge of the pulpit, and form its
only decoration. Perfectly graceful, but severe and almost cold in its
simplicity, built for permanence and service, so that no single member,
no stone of it, could be spared, and yet all are firm and uninjured as
when they were first set together, it stands in venerable contrast both
with the fantastic pulpits of mediaeval cathedrals and with the rich
furniture of those of our modern churches. It is worth while pausing for
a moment to consider how far the manner of decorating a pulpit may have
influence on the eff