er 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.

Sec. II. Perhaps, however, even more strange than the struggle of our
architects to invent new styles, is the way they commonly speak of this
treasure of natural infinity. Let us take our patience to us for an
instant, and hear one of them, not among the least intelligent:--

"It is not true that all natural forms are beautiful. We may hardly
be able to detect this in Nature herself; but when the forms are
separated from the things, and exhibited alone (by sculpture or
carving), we then see that they are not all fitted for ornamental
purposes; and indeed that very few, perhaps none, are so fitted
without correction. Yes, I say _correction_, for though it is the
highest aim of every art to imitate nature, this is not to be done by
imitating any natural form, but by _criticising_ and _correcting_
it,--criticising it by Nature's rules gathered from all her works,
but never completely carried out by her in any one work; correcting
it, by rendering it more natural, _i.e._ more conformable to the
general tendency of Nature, according to that noble maxim recorded of
Raffaelle, 'that the artist's object was to make things not as Nature
makes them, but as she WOULD make them;' as she ever tries to make
them, but never succeeds, though her aim may be deduced from a
comparison of her efforts; just as if a number of archers had aimed
unsuccessfully at a mark upon a wall, and this mark were then
removed, we could by the examination of their arrow marks point out
the most probable position of the spot aimed at, with a certainty of
being nearer to it than any of their shots."[92]

Sec. III. I had thought that, by this time, we had done with that stale,
second-hand, one-sided, and misunderstood saying of Raffaelle's; or that
at least, in these days of purer Christian light, men might have begun
to get some insight