72

THE ALHAMBRA COURT.

rather tempted to make principal what should only be the
accessory.

The side arches are stilted and struck from two centres,
yet so slightly pointed that they are only
just sufficient to relieve them from the
compressed appearance of a semicircular
arch. The centre arch is also from two
centres, and the arch line carried below
the springing so gently that it gives it
rather the appearance of a reminiscence
of the Arabian horse-shoe arch than of
any attempt to retain its form.

The various features of Arabian art were so refined upon by the Moors that the original types seem only retained in the same degree which we see in nature, where the higher order of animals retain types of organisations still strongly marked in the lower.

Diaper on the walls.

The diaper on the walls is a good example of the principle we contend for, that to produce repose the lines of a composition should contain in equilibrium the *straight*, the *inclined*, and the *curved*. It is one of the most perfect that we have employed in our reproduction; we have lines running horizontally, perpendicularly, and diagonally, again contrasted by circles in opposite directions. So that the most perfect repose is obtained, the tendency of the eye to run in any direction is immediately corrected by lines giving an opposite tendency, and wherever the eye strikes upon the patterns it is inclined to dwell.