seems to be an exception to the general
rule, in having its principal decoration at the top; but it is on a
scale of perfect power and effectiveness; while in the base modern
Gothic of Milan Cathedral the statues are cut delicately everywhere, and
the builders think it a merit that the visitor must climb to the roof
before he can see them; and our modern Greek and Italian architecture
reaches the utmost pitch of absurdity by placing its fine work _at the
top only_. So that the general condition of the thing may be stated
boldly, as in the text; the principal ornaments of Gothic buildings
being in their porches, and of modern buildings, in their parapets.

68. Proposition 4th.--_Ornamentation should be natural_,--that is to
say, should in some degree express or adopt the beauty of natural
objects. This law, together with its ultimate reason, is expressed in
the statement given in the "Stones of Venice," vol. i. p. 211: "All
noble ornament is the expression of man's delight in God's work."

Observe, it does not hence follow that it should be an exact imitation
of, or endeavor in anywise to supersede, God's work. It may consist only
in a partial adoption of, and compliance with, the usual forms of
natural things, without at all going to the point of imitation; and it
is possible that the point of imitation may be closely reached by
ornaments, which nevertheless are entirely unfit for their place, and
are the signs only of a degraded ambition and an ignorant dexterity. Bad
decorators err as easily on the side of imitating nature, as of
forgetting her; and the question of the exact degree in which imitation
should be attempted under given circumstances, is one of the most subtle
and difficult in the whole range of criticism. I have elsewhere examined
it at some length, and have yet much to say about it; but here I can
only state briefly that the modes in which ornamentation _ought_ to fall
short of pure representation or imitation are in the main three,
namely:--

A. Conventionalism by cause of color.

B. Conventionalism by cause of inferiority.

C. Conventionalism by cause of means.

69. A. Conventionalism by cause of color.--Abstract color is not an
imitation of nature, but _is_ nature itself; that is to say, the
pleasure taken in blue or red, as such, considered as hues merely, is
the same, so long as the brilliancy of the hue is equal, whether it be
produced by the chemistry of man, or the chemistry of flowers, or