s
assuredly bad.

Sec. CXIV. Lastly. _Read_ the sculpture. Preparatory to reading it, you
will have to discover whether it is legible (and, if legible, it is
nearly certain to be worth reading). On a good building, the sculpture
is _always_ so set, and on such a scale, that at the ordinary distance
from which the edifice is seen, the sculpture shall be thoroughly
intelligible and interesting. In order to accomplish this, the uppermost
statues will be ten or twelve feet high, and the upper ornamentation
will be colossal, increasing in fineness as it descends, till on the
foundation it will often be wrought as if for a precious cabinet in a
king's chamber; but the spectator will not notice that the upper
sculptures are colossal. He will merely feel that he can see them
plainly, and make them all out at his ease.

And, having ascertained this, let him set himself to read them.
Thenceforward the criticism of the building is to be conducted precisely
on the same principles as that of a book; and it must depend on the
knowledge, feeling, and not a little on the industry and perseverance of
the reader, whether, even in the case of the best works, he either
perceive them to be great, or feel them to be entertaining.

FOOTNOTES

[56] The third kind of ornament, the Renaissance, is that in which
the inferior detail becomes principal, the executor of every minor
portion being required to exhibit skill and possess knowledge as
great as that which is possessed by the master of the design; and in
the endeavor to endow him with this skill and knowledge, his own
original power is overwhelmed, and the whole building becomes a
wearisome exhibition of well-educated imbecility. We must fully
inquire into the nature of this form of error, when we arrive at the
examination of the Renaissance schools.

[57] Vide Preface to "Fair Maid of Perth."

[58] The Elgin marbles are supposed by many persons to be "perfect."
In the most important portions they indeed approach perfection, but
only there. The draperies are unfinished, the hair and wool of the
animals are unfinished, and the entire bas-reliefs of the frieze are
roughly cut.

[59] In the eighth chapter we shall see a remarkable instance of
this sacrifice of symmetry to convenience in the arrangement of the
windows of the Ducal Palace.

[60] I am always afraid to use this word "Composition;" it is so
utterly mi