302 THE STONES OF VENICE DECORATION

And if this subordination be not complete, the ornament is bad: if the figurings and chasings and borderings of a dress be not subordinated to the folds of it,-if the folds are not subordinated to the action and mass of the figure,-if this action and mass, not to the divisions of the recesses and shafts among which it stands,-if these, not to the shadows of the great arches and buttresses of the whole building, in each case there is error; much more if all be contending with each other and striving for attention at the same time.

§ 28. It is nevertheless evident, that, however perfect this distribution, there cannot be orders adapted to every distance of the spectator. Between the ranks of ornament there must always be a bold separation: and there must be many intermediate distances, where we are too far off to see the lesser rank clearly, and yet too near to grasp the next higher rank wholly: and at all these distances the spectator will feel himself ill-placed, and will desire to go nearer or farther away. This must be the case in all noble work, natural or artificial. It is exactly the same with respect to Rouen Cathedral or the Mont Blanc. We like to see them from the other side of the Seine, or of the Lake of Geneva: from the Marché aux Fleurs,¹ or the Valley of Chamouni; from the parapets of the apse, or the crags of the Montagne de la Côte:² but there are intermediate distances which dissatisfy us in either case, and from which one is in haste either to advance or to retire.

§ 29. Directly opposed to this ordered, disciplined, well officered, and variously ranked ornament, this type of divine, and therefore of all good human government, is the democratic ornament, in which all is equally influential, and has equal office and authority; that is to say, none of it any office nor authority, but a life of continual struggle for

¹ [That is, the near view of the west front from the Cathedral square, filled, in Turner’s sketch (No. 133 in the National Gallery), with the stalls and baskets of the market-women.]

² [A drawing of this mountain is engraved in plate 35, Modern Painters, vol. iv.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]