E-text prepared by Marius Masi, Juliet Sutherland, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 30754-h.htm or 30754-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/30754/pg30754-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30754/30754-h.zip) Volumes II and III are available in the Project Gutenberg Library: Volume II--see https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/30755 Volume III--see https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/30756 Volume III contains the index for all three volumes. The index in the html version of Volume III has links to the the other two volumes. Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected. They are listed at the end of the text. A number following a letter, such as d3, was printed as a subscript in the original. The Complete Works of John Ruskin Volume VII STONES OF VENICE VOLUME I [Illustration: VENICE. FROM A PAINTING BY J. M. W. TURNER.] Library Edition The Complete Works of John Ruskin STONES OF VENICE VOLUMES I-II National Library Association New York Chicago THE STONES OF VENICE VOLUME I. THE FOUNDATIONS PREFACE. In the course of arranging the following essay, I put many things aside in my thoughts to be said in the Preface, things which I shall now put aside altogether, and pass by; for when a book has been advertised a year and a half, it seems best to present it with as little preface as possible.