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PREFACE. V
circumstances of light and shade; and of which many of the
distinctive features have been worn away by time. I believe
few people have any idea of the cost of truth in these things;
of the expenditure of time necessary to make sure of the
simplest facts, and of the strange way in which separate obser--
vations will sometimes falsify each other, incapable of reconcilement, owing to some imperceptible inadvertency. I am
ashamed of the number of times in which I have had to say,
in the following pages, " I am not sure," and I claim for them
no authority, as if they were thoroughly sifted from error,
even in what they more confidently state. Only, as far as my
time, and strength, and mind served me, I have endeavored^
down to the smallest matters, to ascertain and speak the truth.
Nor was the subject without many and most discouraging
difficulties, peculiar to itself. As far as my inquiries have extended, there is not a building in Venice, raised prior to the
sixteenth century, which has not sustained essential change in
one or more of its most important features. By far the
greater number present examples of three or four different
styles, it may be successive, it may be accidentally associated;
and, in many instances, the restorations or additions have
gradually replaced the entire structure of the ancient fabric, of
which nothing but the name remains, together with a kind of
identity, exhibited in the anomalous association of the modernized portions: the Will of the old building asserted through
them all, stubbornly, though vainly, expressive; superseded
by codicils, and falsified by misinterpretation; yet animating
what would otherwise be a mere group of fantastic masque, as
embarrassing to the antiquary, as to the mineralogist, the
epigene crystal, formed by materials of one substance modelled
on the perished crystals of another. The church of St. Mark's
itself, harmonious as its structure may at first sight appear, is
| Title | The stones of Venice - 1 |
| Creator | Ruskin, John |
| Publisher | J. Wiley |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1889 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000010 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | PREFACE. V circumstances of light and shade; and of which many of the distinctive features have been worn away by time. I believe few people have any idea of the cost of truth in these things; of the expenditure of time necessary to make sure of the simplest facts, and of the strange way in which separate obser-- vations will sometimes falsify each other, incapable of reconcilement, owing to some imperceptible inadvertency. I am ashamed of the number of times in which I have had to say, in the following pages, " I am not sure," and I claim for them no authority, as if they were thoroughly sifted from error, even in what they more confidently state. Only, as far as my time, and strength, and mind served me, I have endeavored^ down to the smallest matters, to ascertain and speak the truth. Nor was the subject without many and most discouraging difficulties, peculiar to itself. As far as my inquiries have extended, there is not a building in Venice, raised prior to the sixteenth century, which has not sustained essential change in one or more of its most important features. By far the greater number present examples of three or four different styles, it may be successive, it may be accidentally associated; and, in many instances, the restorations or additions have gradually replaced the entire structure of the ancient fabric, of which nothing but the name remains, together with a kind of identity, exhibited in the anomalous association of the modernized portions: the Will of the old building asserted through them all, stubbornly, though vainly, expressive; superseded by codicils, and falsified by misinterpretation; yet animating what would otherwise be a mere group of fantastic masque, as embarrassing to the antiquary, as to the mineralogist, the epigene crystal, formed by materials of one substance modelled on the perished crystals of another. The church of St. Mark's itself, harmonious as its structure may at first sight appear, is |
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