CHAPTER XXX

THE VESTIBULE

§ 1. I HAVE hardly kept my promise. The reader has decorated but little for himself as yet;¹ but I have not, at least, attempted to bias his judgment. Of the simple forms of decoration which have been set before him, he has been always left free to choose; and the stated restrictions in the methods of applying them have been only those which followed on the necessities of construction previously determined. These having been now defined, I do indeed leave my reader free to build; and with what a freedom! All the lovely forms of the universe set before him, whence to choose, and all the lovely lines that bound their substance or guide their motion; and of all these lines,-and there are myriads of myriads in every bank of grass and every tuft of forest; and groups of them, divinely harmonised, in the bell of every flower, and in every several member of bird and beast,-of all these lines, for the principal forms of the most important members of architecture, I have used but Three! What, therefore, must be the infinity of the treasure in them all? There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals: but suppose we were satisfied with less exhaustive appliance, and built a score of cathedrals, each to illustrate a single flower? that would be better than trying to invent new styles, I think. There is quite difference of style enough, between a violet and a harebell, for all reasonable purposes.

§ 2. Perhaps, however, even more strange than the struggle of our architects to invent new styles,² is the way

¹ [See above, p. 253.]

² [On this subject see Seven Lamps, Vol. VIII. p. 252.]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]