the Marche aux Fleurs, or the Valley of Chamouni; from the
parapets of the apse, or the crags of the Montagne de la Cote: but there
are intermediate distances which dissatisfy us in either case, and from
which one is in haste either to advance or to retire.

Sec. XXIX. 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 independence and notoriety, or of gambling for chance regards. The
English perpendicular work is by far the worst of this kind that I know;
its main idea, or decimal fraction of an idea, being to cover its walls
with dull, successive, eternity of reticulation, to fill with equal
foils the equal interstices between the equal bars, and charge the
interminable blanks with statues and rosettes, invisible at a distance,
and uninteresting near.

The early Lombardic, Veronese, and Norman work is the exact reverse of
this; being divided first into large masses, and these masses covered
with minute chasing and surface work, which fill them with interest, and
yet do not disturb nor divide their greatness. The lights are kept broad
and bright, and yet are found on near approach to be charged with
intricate design. This, again, is a part of the great system of
treatment which I shall hereafter call "Proutism;" much of what is
thought mannerism and imperfection in Prout's work, being the result of
his determined resolution that minor details shall never break up his
large masses of light.

Sec. XXX. Such are the main principles to be observed in the adaptation of
ornament to the sight. We have lastly to inquire by what method, and in
what quantities, the ornament, thus adapted to mental contemplation, and
prepared for its physical position, may most wisely be arranged. I think
the method ought first to be considered, and the quantity last; for the
advisable quantity depends upon the method.

Sec. XXXI. It was said above, that the proper treatment or arrangement of
ornament was that which expressed the laws and ways of Deity. Now, the
subordination of visible orders to each other, just noted, is one
expression of these. But there may also--must also--be a subordination
and obedience of the parts of each order to some visibl