CONSTRUCTION V. THE WALL VEIL 89

universally, except in the rare cases in which the choice of perfect or imperfect material is entirely open to us, or where the general system of the decoration of the building requires absolute unity in its surface.

§ 7. As regards the arrangement of the intermediate parts themselves, it is regulated by certain conditions of bonding and fitting the stones or bricks, which the reader need hardly be troubled to consider,¹ and which I wish that bricklayers themselves were always honest enough to observe. But I hardly know whether to note under the head of æsthetic or constructive law, this important principle, that masonry is always bad which appears to have arrested the attention of the architect more than absolute conditions of strength require. Nothing is more contemptible in any work than an appearance of the slightest desire on the part of the builder to direct attention to the way its stones are put together, or of any trouble taken either to show or to conceal it more than was rigidly necessary: it may sometimes, on the one hand, be necessary to conceal it as far as may be, by delicate and close fitting, when the joints would interfere with lines of sculpture or of mouldings; and it may often, on the other hand, be delightful to show it, as it is delightful in places to show the anatomy even of the most delicate human frame: but studiously to conceal it is the error of vulgar painters, who are afraid to show that their figures have bones; and studiously to display it is the error of the base pupils of Michael

¹ [In the first draft, however, Ruskin had begun to go into some of these matters:-

“Let the reader then suppose that he has either fastened together with cement, like the walls of our Kentish churches, or fitted together by adjustment, some certain height of wall-veil of the less perfect materials at his disposition; and then that on these he is about to lay a firm course of hewn stone:-he would naturally leave the edges of this rather projecting over the work below, than falling within it, in order to be sure of the full breadth to begin the smaller work upon again; and the edge of the projecting stones would therefore form a slight visible band along the face of the wall. If, however, these courses were very frequent, it would not do to leave these ledges, which would stop the rain from running down the wall, and cause it to soak in at the joints. They would, therefore, be all cut smooth to the wall face, except here and there the ledges of some of the more important tiers.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]