ion;
and prove that it is not in mere economy or poverty, but in the real
impossibility of doing otherwise, that he has sheeted his walls so
thinly with the precious film. Now the shaft is exactly the portion of
the edifice in which it is fittest to recover his honor in this respect.
For if blocks of jasper or porphyry be inserted in the walls, the
spectator cannot tell their thickness, and cannot judge of the
costliness of the sacrifice. But the shaft he can measure with his eye
in an instant, and estimate the quantity of treasure both in the mass of
its existing substance, and in that which has been hewn away to bring it
into its perfect and symmetrical form. And thus the shafts of all
buildings of this kind are justly regarded as an expression of their
wealth, and a form of treasure, just as much as the jewels or gold in
the sacred vessels; they are, in fact, nothing else than large
jewels,[31] the block of precious serpentine or jasper being valued
according to its size and brilliancy of color, like a large emerald or
ruby; only the bulk required to bestow value on the one is to be
measured in feet and tons, and on the other in lines and carats. The
shafts must therefore be, without exception, of one block in all
buildings of this kind; for the attempt in any place to incrust or joint
them would be a deception like that of introducing a false stone among
jewellery (for a number of joints of any precious stone are of course
not equal in value to a single piece of equal weight), and would put an
end at once to the spectator's confidence in the expression of wealth in
any portion of the structure, or of the spirit of sacrifice in those who
raised it.

Sec. XXXIV. LAW IV. _The shafts may sometimes be independent of the
construction._ Exactly in proportion to the importance which the shaft
assumes as a large jewel, is the diminution of its importance as a
sustaining member; for the delight which we receive in its abstract
bulk, and beauty of color, is altogether independent of any perception
of its adaptation to mechanical necessities. Like other beautiful things
in this world, its end is to _be_ beautiful; and, in proportion to its
beauty, it receives permission to be otherwise useless. We do not blame
emeralds and rubies because we cannot make them into heads of hammers.
Nay, so far from our admiration of the jewel shaft being dependent on
its doing work for us, it is very possible that a chief part of its
preciousnes