The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3)

nor mechanical, nor technical, nor empirical,—pure, precious, majestic, massy intellect;

Mental power, observe: not muscular

It is in Venice, therefore, and in Venice only that effectual blows can be struck at this pestilent art of the Renaissance.

Nor is it merely wasted wealth or distempered conception which we have to regret in this Renaissance architecture: but we shall find in it partly the root, partly the expression, of certain dominant evils of modern times—over-sophistication and ignorant classicalism; the one destroying the healthfulness of general society, the other rendering our schools and universities useless to a large number of the men who pass through them

There had indeed come a change over Venetian architecture in the fifteenth century; and a change of some importance to us moderns

while all Europe around her was wasted by the fire of its devotion, she first calculated the highest price she could exact from its piety for the armament she furnished, and then, for the advancement of her own private interests, at once broke her faith

Amidst the enthusiasm, chivalry, or fanaticism of the other states of Europe, Venice stands, from first to last, like a masked statue; her coldness impenetrable, her exertion only aroused by the touch of a secret spring. That spring was her commercial interest,—this the one motive of all her important political acts, or enduring national animosities.

the decline of her political prosperity was exactly coincident with that of domestic and individual religion.

the victories of Venice, and, at many periods of it, her safety, were purchased by individual heroism

struggling out of anarchy into order and power;