THE CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 49 
founders, the uses to which different parts were designed, 
the symbolism of their form and ornament are to be ignored 
and despised—then, it appears to me, the labours of its 
students will result in little more than the unrelieved 
tediousness of a museum catalogue. But if, on the other 
hand, we enter on the study with a blind admiration of 
every object and usage that presents itself; if everything 
is to be deemed beautiful and perfect merely because it is 
old; if we will not admit that the ancient architects ever 
committed a fault in construction or proportion ; if we 
make no allowance for lapse of time, for changes in ritual 
and ceremony, for the new acquirements and habits of 
society—then, with equal folly and more danger, we are 
turning our light into darkness, and laying a snare for our 
Judgment—it may be for our faith. But there is a spirit, 
at once reverential and enlightened, with which these sub- 
jeets can best be entered into, and which, indeed, appears 
to me most remarkably to have characterized its most 
successful students. If we pursue the study of church 
architecture, for instance, in the same spirit with which 
Mr. Bloxham and Mr. Markland (and I the more gladly 
mention these names as being those of laymen, and the 
latter as one which has, in this diocese and on the church 
at large, the greatest claim to have good witness borne it); 
if, I say, we follow in the track and in the spirit which 
those two faithful sons of the church have pointed out to 
us—then we can hardly fail to have our hearts warmed, as 
our minds are strengthened ; we shall be led not only to 
admire, but to emulate the works of by-gone days—to dis- 
criminate the pious motive from the superstitious use— 
the beautiful from the monstrous—the living from the 
dead—that which is temporary and conventional from 
that which is unchangeable and eternal. I feel I have 
