TREES IN ARCHITECTURE 189 



have thought that in this chapter I have been 

 discussing things not quite certainly within the 

 limits suggested by the title of this book. It 

 may not, however, have been quite out of order 

 to have led up to and suggested to him a com- 

 parison between the beauty of the woodland 

 and the beauty of the Gothic interior. And 

 if he will admit so much, he will surely admit 

 further and willingly that, if the passage from 

 The Stones of Venice just quoted be really 

 accurate, the decorative work of the Gothic 

 sculptors, expressing an intense affection for 

 living foliage, has a value for us not only as 

 art, but for its capacity to quicken our obser- 

 vation of the beauty of nature. We may 

 be inclined to say that, just because the 

 Gothic ornament, at a certain period, can do 

 this for us, it has overstepped the bounds of 

 art. But even if this be so, excessive natural- 

 ism in architectural work may not be without 

 its value for the student of nature, and we 

 should put this Gothic sculpture to such good 

 use as it can be to us. 



From the point of view we are adopting 

 much might be written about it. Here I pur- 

 pose to do little more than urge the reader, 



