28 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [ Vo. Lis 
those critical years, 1834-40, than a perusal of this interesting corres- 
pondence. 
Mr. Bain referred to the series of papers on Lower Canada published 
last year in the Montreal Szar, and urged the importance of collecting 
and preserving historical documents such as that read this evening, as 
the principal characters were fast passing away. 
EIGHTEENTH MEETING. 
Eighteenth Meeting, 19th March, 1892, the President in the chair. 
Donations and Exchanges since last meeting, 59. 
Messrs. Howland and Macdougall were appointed to attend a meeting 
of the Ontario Artists’ Association with the Government and the Uni- 
versity authorities respecting the preservation of the old U. C. College 
buildings and grounds for art, science and literature. 
Messrs. Clark and Ridout were named auditors for the year. 
It was decided to call a special general meeting for the 9th April 
next to consider certain amendments to the regulations proposed by 
the Council. 
A vote of thanks was passed to Drs. Susanna Boyle and Letitia K. 
Meade for their services in the work of craniometry for publication in 
the last archeological report. 
Mr. J. W. L. Forster read a paper on “ Nineteenth Century Sacred 
Art.” After quoting authority to show that no such art exists in this 
age, he made a review of the rise of the art in the middle ages and the 
causes that led to it. Turning to the spirit of this age and its effect 
upon art, he said that the art of to-day exhibited less of the adornment 
and precision of the conventicle, and more of the pathos of the soul that 
has learned for itself the meaning of suffering, right down in the throb- 
bing populations of the world. 
Mr. Harvey had made the statement at the reading of a former paper 
that sacred art has become impossible. Mr. Forster does not meet this 
question in the spirit the statement was made. He evades the question 
by introducing a new definition which was not the common one. He 
questioned very much whether religion was at all artistic. It seemed to 
him that the tendency in religion was to consider moral and religious 
questions without the aid of art, and it was better so to consider them. 
Mr. Forster had made the remark that art flourished more when the people 
were illiterate. It was the object of the art of the middle ages to educate 
