86 THE SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE

contrary, are so cold, clumsy, and vulgar, so essentially incapable of a fine line or shadow, as those of cast-iron; and while, on the score of truth, we can hardly allege anything against them, since they are always distinguishable, at a glance, from wrought and hammered work, and stand only for what they are, yet I feel very strongly that there is no hope of the progress of the arts of any nation which indulges in these vulgar and cheap substitutes for real decoration. Their inefficiency and paltriness I shall endeavour to show more conclusively in another place;¹ enforcing only, at present, the general conclusion that, if even honest or allowable, they are things in which we can never take just pride or pleasure, and must never be employed in any place wherein they might either themselves obtain the credit of being other and better than they are, or be associated with the thoroughly downright work to which it would be a disgrace to be found in their company.

Such are, I believe, the three principal kinds of fallacy by which architecture is liable to be corrupted; there are, however, other and more subtle forms of it, against which it is less easy to guard by definite law, than by the watchfulness of a manly and unaffected spirit. For, as it has been above noticed,² there are certain kinds of deception which extend to impressions and ideas only; of which some are, indeed, of a noble use, as that above referred to, the arborescent look of lofty Gothic aisles;³ but of which the most part⁴ have so much of legerdemain and trickery about them, that they will lower any style in which they considerably prevail; and they are

from the original sweetness of its curve, and boldness of light and shade, on the flat surface; partly from the rusting and warming of its weathered colour; partly from the battering of portions into varied form. But a magnificent instance occurs in the railing of a garden of a palace near the church of Sta. Afra of Brescia, where the leaf bronze is cut into three beautiful shrubs with flexible stalks and fruit, which project far beyond the railing; yet with a certain architectural severity about them, and not occupying much space; the greater part of the railing, 30 feet high perhaps, being flatly decorated and gilded, but it is all fine.]

¹ [See below, ch. v. p. 214.]

² [Above, § 7, p. 61.]

³ [Above, ibid., p. 61.]

⁴ [The MS. inserts, “, while not in strictness to be condemned.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]