yet very noble architecture; or it may be very pure Gothic,
and yet, if a copy, or originally raised by an ungifted builder, very
bad architecture.

If it belong to any of the great schools of color, its criticism becomes
as complicated, and needs as much care, as that of a piece of music, and
no general rules for it can be given; but if not--

Sec. CXI. First. See if it looks as if it had been built by strong men;
if it has the sort of roughness, and largeness, and nonchalance, mixed in
places with the exquisite tenderness which seems always to be the
sign-manual of the broad vision, and massy power of men who can see
_past_ the work they are doing, and betray here and there something like
disdain for it. If the building has this character, it is much already
in its favor; it will go hard but it proves a noble one. If it has not
this, but is altogether accurate, minute, and scrupulous in its
workmanship, it must belong to either the very best or the very worst of
schools: the very best, in which exquisite design is wrought out with
untiring and conscientious care, as in the Giottesque Gothic; or the
very worst, in which mechanism has taken the place of design. It is more
likely, in general, that it should belong to the worst than the best: so
that, on the whole, very accurate workmanship is to be esteemed a bad
sign; and if there is nothing remarkable about the building but its
precision, it may be passed at once with contempt.

Sec. CXII. Secondly. Observe if it be irregular, its different parts
fitting themselves to different purposes, no one caring what becomes of
them, so that they do their work. If one part always answers accurately
to another part, it is sure to be a bad building; and the greater and
more conspicuous the irregularities, the greater the chances are that it
is a good one. For instance, in the Ducal Palace, of which a rough
woodcut is given in Chap. VIII., the general idea is sternly
symmetrical; but two windows are lower than the rest of the six; and if
the reader will count the arches of the small arcade as far as to the
great balcony, he will find it is not in the centre, but set to the
right-hand side by the whole width of one of those arches. We may be
pretty sure that the building is a good one; none but a master of his
craft would have ventured to do this.

Sec. CXIII. Thirdly. Observe if all the traceries, capitals, and other
ornaments are of perpetually varied design. If not, the work i