2. The cathedral of Cologne, for churches with _coloured_ glass, and St. Peter’s at Rome, for those with _white_ glass, are two types which it will be sufficient to mention when we wish to demonstrate that beauty is compatible with different systems. 3. Much as I admire the marvels which the arts have accumulated in churches where white light freely enters, and although I acknowledge the effects which certain pictures of the first order are capable of producing in the Christian mind, yet the churches in which we see these decorations, resemble museums of art more than temples consecrated to prayer; and under this aspect they do not appear to me to fulfil the conditions imposed by the principle of fitness of edifices to their purpose in the same degree as Gothic churches with stained glass windows. ON THE DECORATION OF MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES. 455. The essential condition which these edifices must fulfil, is, that the light be as white and as vivid as possible; but always diffused and distributed equally and in the most suitable manner upon all the objects exhibited to the spectator, so that they may be seen without fatigue, and distinctly in every part. _Picture Galleries._ 456. There is generally a disposition to be prodigal of ornaments and gilding in such buildings. Without pretending that all decoration should be proscribed, yet I believe that there is less disadvantage in erring by deficiency than by excess; in fact, the pictures, &c., are the precious objects, and it is to them that we must attract attention. Let me add, that one of the most injurious things to the effect of pictures is their accumulation—their being crammed all together; the position they then occupy, so different from that for which the painters destined them, diminishes the illusion which each would produce if it were in its proper place. Few, except the intelligent connoisseur and amateur, on seeing a picture exhibited in a gallery, experience all the effect which the artist wished to produce. Even the contiguity of the frame to the picture is destructive of the illusion of perspective: hence the difference between the effect of a framed picture and the effect of the same picture when seen through an opening, which permits us to see neither frame nor limits: it then recalls all the illusion of the diorama. _Sculpture Galleries._ 457. Statues of white marble or stone, as well as plaster casts, stand out well in a gallery, the walls of which are of a pearly-grey colour; and if we would augment the whiteness of the statues by neutralizing the red hue which the marble, stone, or plaster might have, we could colour the walls with a chamois or orange-grey tint. If, on the contrary, we preferred giving to the statues a warm colour, which many sculptors esteem so highly, the walls must be of blue-grey. Green walls will give to the statues a rosy tint, which is not disagreeable. The tone of their colour must be lower, the brighter we wish the sculptures to be.