STONES OF VENICE
By John Ruskin
CONTENTS
CHAPTER V. — THE DUCAL PALACE.
THE STONES OF VENICE:
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS AND LOCAL INDICES
(PRINTED SEPARATELY)
FOR THE USE OF TRAVELLERS WHILE STAYING IN VENICE AND VERONA.
PREFACE.
This volume is the first of a series designed by the Author with the purpose of placing in the hands of the public, in more serviceable form, those portions of his earlier works which he thinks deserving of a permanent place in the system of his general teaching. They were at first intended to be accompanied by photographic reductions of the principal plates in the larger volumes; but this design has been modified by the Author's increasing desire to gather his past and present writings into a consistent body, illustrated by one series of plates, purchasable in separate parts, and numbered consecutively. Of other prefatory matter, once intended,—apologetic mostly,—the reader shall be spared the cumber: and a clear prospectus issued by the publisher of the new series of plates, as soon as they are in a state of forwardness.
The second volume of this edition will contain the most useful matter out of the third volume of the old one, closed by its topical index, abridged and corrected.
BRANTWOOD,
3rd May, 1879.
THE STONES OF VENICE
CHAPTER I. — THE QUARRY.
[FIRST OF THE OLD EDITION.]
SECTION I. Since the first dominion of men was asserted over the ocean, three thrones, of mark beyond all others, have been set upon its sands: the thrones of Tyre, Venice, and England. Of the First of these great powers only the memory remains; of the Second, the ruin; the Third, which inherits their greatness, if it forget their example, may be led through prouder eminence to less pitied destruction.
The exaltation, the sin, and the punishment of Tyre have been recorded for us, in perhaps the most touching words ever uttered by the Prophets of Israel against the cities of the stranger. But we read them as a lovely song; and close our ears to the sternness of their warning: for the very depth of the Fall of Tyre has blinded us to its reali