e earlier buildings:
but, in the early work, it is vigorous, prominent, and essential to the
beauty of the whole; in the late work it is enfeebled, and shrouded in
the veil of tracery, from which it may often be removed with little harm
to the general effect.[74]

[Illustration: Fig. XX.]

Sec. CV. Now the reader may rest assured that no principle of art is more
absolute than this,--that a composition from which anything can be
removed without doing mischief is always so far forth inferior. On this
ground, therefore, if on no other, there can be no question, for a
moment, which of the two schools is the greater; although there are many
most noble works in the French traceried Gothic, having a sublimity of
their own dependent on their extreme richness and grace of line, and for
which we may be most grateful to their builders. And, indeed, the
superiority of the Surface-Gothic cannot be completely felt, until we
compare it with the more degraded Linear schools, as, for instance, with
our own English Perpendicular. The ornaments of the Veronese niche,
which we have used for our example, are by no means among the best of
their school, yet they will serve our purpose for such a comparison.
That of its pinnacle is composed of a single upright flowering plant, of
which the stem shoots up through the centres of the leaves, and bears a
pendent blossom, somewhat like that of the imperial lily. The leaves are
thrown back from the stem with singular grace and freedom, and
foreshortened, as if by a skilful painter, in the shallow marble relief.
Their arrangement is roughly shown in the little woodcut at the side
(Fig. XX.); and if the reader will simply try the experiment for
himself,--first, of covering a piece of paper with crossed lines, as if
for accounts, and filling all the interstices with any foliation that
comes into his head, as in Figure XIX. above; and then, of trying to
fill the point of a gable with a piece of leafage like that in Figure
XX. above, putting the figure itself aside,--he will presently find that
more thought and invention are required to design this single minute
pinnacle, than to cover acres of ground with English perpendicular.

Sec. CVI. We have now, I believe, obtained a sufficiently accurate
knowledge both of the spirit and form of Gothic architecture; but it
may, perhaps, be useful to the general reader, if, in conclusion, I set
down a few plain and practical rules for determining, in every instan