the one green and the other red; but in
portions of ornamentation where there was nothing which could be
definitely construed into either an oak-leaf or a rose, but a mere
labyrinth of beautiful lines, becoming here something like a leaf, and
there something like a flower, the whole tracery of the sculpture might
be left white, and grounded with gold or blue, or treated in any other
manner best harmonizing with the colors around it. And as the
necessarily feeble character of the sculpture called for and was ready
to display the best arrangements of color, so the precious marbles in
the architect's hands give him at once the best examples and the best
means of color. The best examples, for the tints of all natural stones
are as exquisite in quality as endless in change; and the best means,
for they are all permanent.

Sec. XLVI. Every motive thus concurred in urging him to the study of
chromatic decoration, and every advantage was given him in the pursuit
of it; and this at the very moment when, as presently to be noticed, the
_naivete_ of barbaric Christianity could only be forcibly appealed to by
the help of colored pictures: so that, both externally and internally,
the architectural construction became partly merged in pictorial effect;
and the whole edifice is to be regarded less as a temple wherein to
pray, than as itself a Book of Common Prayer, a vast illuminated missal,
bound with alabaster instead of parchment, studded with porphyry pillars
instead of jewels, and written within and without in letters of enamel
and gold.

Sec. XLVII. LAW VII. _That the impression of the architecture is not to
be dependent on size._ And now there is but one final consequence to be
deduced. The reader understands, I trust, by this time, that the claims
of these several parts of the building upon his attention will depend
upon their delicacy of design, their perfection of color, their
preciousness of material, and their legendary interest. All these
qualities are independent of size, and partly even inconsistent with it.
Neither delicacy of surface sculpture, nor subtle gradations of color,
can be appreciated by the eye at a distance; and since we have seen that
our sculpture is generally to be only an inch or two in depth, and that
our coloring is in great part to be produced with the soft tints and
veins of natural stones, it will follow necessarily that none of the
parts of the building can be removed far from the eye, and ther