184 



became the fashion, and lost in its triumph much that made the 

 triumph worth the winning. In the progress of time Christian Art 

 lost its stern simpHcity of symboUc teaching, but artistically gained 

 more than an equivalent by engrafting on to its principles the 

 splendid features of Greek and Roman Art. This blended style is 

 commonly known as Byzantyne. 



In this school or epoch of art, we find the old classic scrolls 

 combined in their details with the lily and the trefoil, the cross and 

 the monogram. More and more latitude is taken as the study of 

 the beautiful is permitted and encouraged, until it eventually 

 culminates in the gorgeous beauty of the Romanesque. 



When the degenerate Roman Empire fell to pieces, and 

 Europe was over-run by barbarous hordes, symbolism again played 

 a vitally important part. Society was unconsciously undergoing a 

 purifying process ; but during this time, commonly known as the 

 dark ages, the masses of the people were sunk in ignorance and 

 barbarism. Religion was the only home of the Arts and Sciences, 

 and outside her pale another institution had to fill the place of 

 civilization : this was called Chivalry. Both Religion and Chivalry 

 had to work upon the imagination and the intelligence. Compelled 

 by necessity, both employed the same primitive agency : both 

 adopted the language of symbolism. Thus we find our Gothic 

 cathedrals and churches built on the ground plan of a cross ; their 

 niches full of saints and virgins ; their windows had tracery of 

 trefoils and quatrefoils ; and the stained glass contained effigies of 

 saints and martyrs, apostles and evangelists. They carved their 

 misereres and stone capitals with types of the seasons, and taught 

 the people to behold the goodness of the Creator in the bounteous- 

 ness of His works. Unconsciously also they went further back, 

 and in their steeples they copied the obelisks. They ornamented 

 their arches (the construction of which in its principles they owe 

 to the Egyptians,) with the zig-zag, the emblem of the Nile. They 

 carved lions, masks, and fantastic heads on their gurgoyles, which 

 may find their prototypes in Egyptian, Indian, or Chinese temples; 

 and on their crockets we find numerous varieties of the mystic 

 lotus. 



