This book began to assume shape in Ruskin's mind as early as 1846;
he actually wrote it in the six months between November, 1848, and
April, 1849. It is the first of five illustrated volumes embodying
the results of seven years devoted to the study of the principles
and ideals of Gothic Architecture, the other volumes being _The
Stones of Venice_ and _Examples of the Architecture of Venice_
(1851). In the first edition of _The Seven Lamps_ the plates were
not only all drawn but also etched by his own hand. Ruskin at a
later time wrote that the purpose of _The Seven Lamps_ was "to
show that certain right states of temper and moral feeling were
the magic powers by which all good architecture had been
produced." He is really applying here the same tests of truth and
sincerity that he employed in _Modern Painters_. Chronologically,
this volume and the others treating of architecture come between
the composition of Volumes II and III of _Modern Painters_.
Professor Charles Eliot Norton writes that the _Seven Lamps_ is
"the first treatise in English to teach the real significance of
architecture as the most trustworthy record of the life and faith
of nations." The following selections form the closing chapters of
the volume, and have a peculiar interest as anticipating the
social and political ideas which came to colour all his later
work.