68 



their sublime greatness, and stupendous dimensions; some,' 

 by their exquisite grace and beauty, their just proper-! 

 tions, the harmony of their parts, and the elaborate per- 

 fection with which they are finished; and others, again, 

 by a conil)ination of all these different attributes: many 

 of the principal were edifices, erected for religious pur- 

 poses. Indeed, in every period, and through every stage 

 of society, religious enthusiasm has, occasionally, and often 

 without directly intending it, been a promoter of the fine 

 arts, (with the solitary exception of the Christian religion, 

 at some particular periods, and in some particidar sects.) 

 Even the rudest ages had their idols: and the darkest and 

 most savage rituals, even those, which streamed with the 

 blood of human sacrifices, were not without their choral 

 hymns and religious melodies.* 



The first introduction of Christianity was, certainly, un- 

 favourable to the fine arts.-\- The course of life, and edu- 

 cation of many of the primitive teachers of the new doc- 

 trine, rendered them unfriendly to every species of ele- 

 gance, pomp and refinement. Their religious notions, par- 

 ticularly their abhorrence of the idolatrous worship of the 

 heathens, accompanied by an active zeal, led them to 

 consider, as a most meritorious sacrifice to the true God, 

 the destruction of heathen temples, and the graven images 

 with which they were decorated. By this spirit, many of 



the 



* See, in Asiatic Researches, and other books, an account of eastern mo- 

 numents. 



t The reader will find the influence of various forms of religion, on the 

 manners and tastes of men, considered much at large, in an Essay on the 

 Effects of the Reformation, by Villers. 



