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pointed arch and the groined roof , because , while we look habitually out of square windows and : live under flat ceilings , we meet with the more beautiful forms in the ruins of our abbeys . But when those abbeys were built , the pointed arch was used for every shop door , as well as that of the cloister , and the feudal baron and freebooter feasted , as the monk sang , under vaulted roofs ; not because the vaulting was thought especially appropriate to either the-revel or the psalm , but because it _ then the form jn < which a strong roof was easiest built . We have destroyed the goodly architecture of our cities ; we have substituted one wholly devoid of beauty or meaning ; and then we reason respecting the strange effect upon pur minds of the fragments which , fortunately , we have left in our churches , as if those churches had always been designed to stand out in strong relief from all the buildings around them , and Gothic architecture had always been what it is now , a religious language , like Monkish Latin . Most readers know , if they would arouse their knowledge , that this was not so ; but they take no pains to reason the matter out : they abandon themselves drowsily to the impression that Gothic is a
peculiarly ecclesiastical style ; and sometimes even that richness in church ornament is a condition or furtherance of the Romish religion . Undoubtedly it has become so in modern times : for there being no beauty in our recent architecture , arid much in the remains of the past , and these remains being almost exclusively ecclesiastical , the High Church and Romanist parties have not been slow in availing themselves of the natural instincts which were deprived of all food except from this source ; and have willingly promulgated the theory , that because all the good architecture that is now left is expressive of High Church or Romanist doctrines , all good architecture ever has been and must be so—a piece of absurdity from which , though here and there a country clergyman may innocently believe it , I hope the common sense of the nation will soon manfully quit itself . It needs but little inquiry into the spirit of the past , to ascertain what , once for all , I would desire here clearly and forcibly to assert , that wherever Christian church architecture has been good and lovely , it has been merely the perfect development of the common dwellinghouse architecture of the period ; that when the pointed arch was used in the street , it was used in the church ; when the round arch was used in the street it
was used m the church ; when the pinnacle was set over the garret window , it was set over the belfry tower ; when the flat roof was vised for the drawing-room it was used for the nave . There is no sacredness in round arches , nor in pointed ; none in pinnacles , nor in buttresses ; none in pillars , nor in traceries . Churches were larger than most other buildings , because they , had to hold more people ; they were more adorned than most other buildings , because they were safer from violence , and were the fitting subjects of devotional offering : but they were never built in any separate , mystical , and religious style . rthey were built in the manner that was common and familiar to everybody at the time . The flamboyant traceries
that adorn the facade of Rouen Cathedral had once their fellows in every window of every house in the rnarket-place ; the sculptures that adorn the porches of St . Mark's had once their match on the walls of every palace on the Grand Canal ; and the only difference between the church and the dwelling-house was , that there existed a symbolical meaning in the distribution of the parts of all buildings meant for worship , and that the painting or sculpture was , in the one case , less frequently of profane subject than in the other . A more severe distinction cannot be drawn : for secular history was constantly introduced into church architecture ; and sacred history or allusion generally formed at least one half of the ornament of the dwellinsr-house . "
The following will be read with interest : — DO THE EELIGIOUS CARE FOK ART ? " The more I have examined this subject the more dangerous I have found it to dogmatize respecting the character of the art which ia likely , at n given period , to be most useful to the cause of religion . One great fact first meets me . I cannot answer for the experience of others , but I never yet met with a Christian whose heart was thoroughly set upon the world to conic , and , so far as human judgment could pronounce , perfect and right before God , who cared about art at all . 1 have known several very noble Christian men who loved it intensely , but in them there was always traceable some entanglement of the thoughts with the matters of this world , causing them to fall into strange distresses and doubts , and often leading them into what they themselves would confess to be errors in understanding , or even failures in duty . I do not say that these men may not , many of them , be in very deed nobler than ( hose whose conduct in more consistent ; they may bo more tender in the tone of all their feelings , and farther-sighted in soul ,
and for that very reason exposed to greater trials and fears , than those whose hardier frame and naturally narrower vision enable them with less effort to give their hands to God and walk with Him . But still the general fact is indeed so , that I have never known n man who seemed altogether right and calm in faith , who seriousl y cared about art ; and when casually moved by it , it id quite impossible to say beforehand by what class of nrt this impression will on such men be , made . Very often it is by n theatrical commonplaco , nioro frequently still by false sentiment ; . I believe that tho four painters who have had , und still have , the inoHt influence , such as it is , on tho ordinary Protestant Christian mind , are . Carlo JJ olei , Guercino , Benjamin West , and John Martin . Raphael , much as ho is wilued about , is , I believe in very fact , rarely looked at by religious people ; much •«»» his master , or any of the truly great religious men of old . But a smooth -Magdalen of Carlo Dolci with n tear on each cheek , or a Guercino Christ or St . J <> hn , or a Scripture illustration of West ' s , or n black cloud with a flash of liglit-«»» g m it of Martin ' s , rarely fails of being verily , often deeply , felt for tho
" There are indeed very evident reasons for this ; the chief ono being that , as « trul y great religious painters huv « been hearty Roinani . stfi , thero are nono of > eir works which do not embody , in some portions of . them , definitely Romanist octriii os . The Protestant mintl ' is instantly Hti-uck by these , and oil'multid l > y f "j l ' ? to l ) 0 "Jwipnbto of entertaining , or at least rendered indisposed to enter © f-i Y"tO tlU > llom'fc of < lk 0 worlc » or t ° the discovering those deeper character * of H " - - ° UO < 1 ltoumi " > buL Christian , in the everlasting koiiso and power of '' mtll . y- Tlin « «« wt . Protestanth , entering for tho first liino a Paradisetho ¦ ° ' VVOUl < 1 1 > 0 irn ' vocal ) 1 J tended by finding that the first person mid 1 Mll , ' wisllwl fcll 0 ni & ° K l ) 0 Ilk to wns St . Dominic ; and would retire from * * rhun Vou Us H l M ;{ Hlil y nH ] MMHil > l « , ~ not giving themsolves time to dimiovor , that they i * " , HCtl in 1 > llU ! lc ' wl"fc « V » ' P ™ . Y » »«< l b y whatever name in tho calendar morn "' » c > allo < 1 ' llll > fi tf ur «« Mat . filled that Angelica heaven wore indeed hand MU " 7 " ' ftTul I ) uro ' "ml ful 1 of lovo ia ° vory feature , than any that tho human for tli rm T ° lM : foro or BhlC 0 - Aml tlllM 1 > r <> ta » famti 8 in , having foolishly sought 'o iutio help n requires at the hand of painting from tho men who embodied
no Catholic doctrine , has been reduced to receive it from those who believed neither Catholicism nor Protestantism , but who read the Bible in search of the picturesque . We thus refuse to regard the painters who passed their lives in prayer , but are perfectly ready to be taught by those who spent them in debauchery . There is perhaps no more papular Protestant picture , than Salvator's ' Witch of Endor / of which the subject was chosen by the painter simply because , under the names of Saul and the Sorceress , he cohld paint a captain of banditti , and a Neapolitan hag . " The fact seems to be that strength of religious feeling is capable of supplying for itself whatever is wanting in the rudest suggestions of art , and will either on the one hand , purify what is coarse into ineffeusiveness , or , on the other , raise what is feeble into iunpressiveness . Probably all art , as such , is unsatisfactory to it ; and the effort which it makes to supply the void will be induced rather by association and accident than by the real merit of the work submitted to it . The likeness to a beloved friend , the correspondence with a habitual conception , the freedom from any strange or offensive particularity , and , above all , an interesting
choice of incident , will win admiration for a picture when the noblest efforts of religious imagination would otherwise fail of powei \ How much more , when to the quick capacity of emotion is joined a childish trust that the picture does indeed represent a fact ! It matters little whether the fact be well or ill told ; the moment we believe the picture to be true , we complain little of its being illpainted . Let it be considered for a moment , whether the child with its coloured print , inquiring eagerly and gravely which is Joseph , and which is Benjamin , is not more capable of receiving a strong , even a sublime , impression from the rude symbol which it invests with reality by its own effort , than the connoisseur who admires the grouping of the three figures in Raphael ' s ' Telling of the Dreams ;' and whether also , when the human mind is in right religious tone , it has not always this childish power—I speak advisedly , this power—a noble one , and possessed more in youth than at any period of after life , but always , I think , restored in a measure by religion- —of raising into sublimity and reality the rudest symbol-which is given to it of accredited truth . "
We shall probably , on a future occasion , find space for more extracts ; it being seldom a work so rich , comes under our hands . ; Meanwhile , let us close , and fitly close these remarks with a noble passage , capable of varied application : —
THE IMPERFECTIONS OF GItEAT THINGS . " The finer the nature the more flaws it will show through the clearness of it ; and it is a law of this universe , that the best things shall be seldomest seen in their best form . The wild grass grows well and strongly , one year with another ; but the wheat is , according to the greater nobleness of its nature , liable to the bitterer blight . And , therefore , while in all . things that we see , or do , we are to desire ¦ perfection , and strive for it , weare nevertheless not to set the meaner thing , in its narrow accomplishment , above the nobler thing , in its mighty progress ; not to esteem smooth minuteness above shattered majesty ; not to prefer mean victory to honourable defeat ; not to lower the level of our aim , that we may the rhore surely enjoy the complacency Of success . But , above all , in our dealings with the souls of other men , we are to take care how we cheek , by severe requirement or narrow caution , efforts which might otherwise lead to a noble issue ; and , still more , how we withhold our admiration from great excellencies , because they are mingled with rough faults . "
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CHRISTIE JOHNSTONE , AND CHARLES BELMER . Christie Johnstone . A novel . By Charles Reade , Esq ., Author of ' Peg Woffington , ' Ac-Ben tlcy . Charles Delmer . A Story of tho Day . Two Vols . Second Edition . Bcntlcy . An amusing novel , with freshness in the treatment , ' vivacity in style , and some novelty in the scene , cannot bufc be welcome to our reading public , which has been for a long- while kept without such a tiling ; and such a novel is Christie Johnstone . Mr . llcade , who won his dramatic spurs as part author of Mas 7 cs and Faces , even in this work shows , somewhat too obtrusively , the tendencies of the dramatic writer ; but if some faults in his story are attributable to a theatrical pre-occupation , it must also bo confessed that this pro-occupation has saved him from wearisome descriptions , wordinesses , and has given a sharprfess of individuality to his characters . The novel is amusing ; as such let it be welcomed . Those who arc critical will object to the curtness and frequent flippancy—a flippancy often jarring from its obtrusion upon serious thoughts—an idle , and not always accurate use of French phrases—attempts at dramatic dialogue not always successful—and , above all , inconsistencies in the delineation of character . But even those who are critical will admire the rapidity , the vivacity , sometimes wit and drollery ( as when a child is termed tho gristle of contention ) , the touches of pathos , and the novelty of tho scenes of JSTcwhaven life , and its vivacious fishwives . The story is indicated rather than told—the situations being hinted rather fclian fully wrought out . A young nobleman , rich and listless , falls in love with his cousin , who refuses him because ho is not " earnest "—not a " hero ; " lie has neither virtues nor vices . In pursuit of these he takes u physician's advice to make acquaintance with all the people of low estate who have time to be bothered with him—to learn their ways , their minds , and their troubles . Ho goes to Nowhavon , and from philanthropy emerges into heroism , and wins his cousin .
A young artist , Gatty , full of the pre-Kapharlito doctrines , falls in lovo with Christie Johns l ; ono , a New haven fishwife . The horror of hi , s mother —widow of a respectable greengrocer — ni ; iy be conceived I IS he conies to part tho ^ Uappy pair , by preaching common sense against lovo- and succeeds . r J . o make tho following extract intelligible , we . should add that Gatty has been served with a writ for eighty pounds ~ Chn \ stie has gone to earn the money to rescue him—but meanwhile a nobleman has purchased his picture for one hundred and fifty pounds . JNow hear the novelist : — " Christie drew her aside , and learned that Hatty and his mother were jimt coming' through from Loith ; Christ !*) ran for her eighty pounds , placed , them in her bosom , cast a lmnty glance at a looking-glaas , little larger than an oyHter-Hholl and ran out .
"' Ileeh ! what pleased tho auld wife will bo to koo he has a laws that can jnivk nuchty puml in a morning / Thin wan ChriKLio ' tf notion . At wight of them nlu ) took out tho bank-notcH , and with oyen glistening and cheeks flushing , « ho cried
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September 17 , 1853 , ] THE LEADER . 907
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 17, 1853, page 907, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2004/page/19/
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