72 THE SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE

of animals here is appointed by God to be a marble architecture, not a flint nor adamant architecture; and all manner of expedients are adopted to attain the utmost degree of strength and size possible under that great limitation. The jaw of the ichthyosaurus is pieced and riveted,¹ the leg of the megatherium is a foot thick, and the head of the mylodon² has a double skull; we, in our wisdom, should, doubtless, have given the lizard a steel jaw, and the mylodon a cast-iron headpiece, and forgotten the great principle to which all creation bears witness, that order and system are nobler things than power. But God shows us in Himself, strange as it may seem, not only authoritative perfection, but even the perfection of Obedience-an obedience to His own laws: and in the cumbrous movement of those unwieldiest of His creatures, we are reminded, even in His divine essence, of that attribute of uprightness in the human creature; “that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.”³

§ 14. 2nd. Surface Deceits. These may be generally defined as the inducing the supposition of some form of material which does not actually exist; as commonly in the painting of wood to represent marble,⁴ or in the painting of ornaments in deceptive relief,⁵ etc. But we must be careful to observe, that the evil of them consists always in definitely attempted deception, and that it is a matter of some nicety to mark the point where deception begins or ends.

Thus, for instance, the roof of Milan Cathedral is seemingly covered with elaborate fan tracery, forcibly⁶ enough painted to enable it, in its dark and removed position, to deceive a careless observer. This is, of course, gross degradation; it destroys much of the dignity even of the rest of the building, and is in the very strongest terms to be reprehended.

¹ [The MS. adds, “and that of the whale infinitely divided into elastic threads.”]

² [So, correctly, in ed. 2. Eds. 1 and 1880 read “myodon.” Owen’s monograph on this extinct giant ground-sloth had appeared in 1842.]

³ [Psalms xv. 4.]

⁴ [Cf. above, p. 38 n.]

⁵ [See Stones of Venice, vol. iii. ch. i. § 40.]

⁶ [The MS. reads: “not very well painted indeed, but well enough ... to induce deception and require some pains to discover its fictitiousness.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]