108 PAPERS, ETC. 



reniains are daily attacked under the plea of einbellishing 

 what is unsightly and of supporting what is ready to fall. 

 The so-called embellishing consists in the defacement of 

 the object, and the so-called supporting in its annihilation 

 or complete metamorphosis. The old proverb is again 

 exeinplified, " Tempus edax, horao edacior," which a great 

 Frenchman of our own age has well translated, " Time is 

 blind, man stupid." 



Allow me, then, to say a word in favour of mouldings, 

 though crumbhng ; of sculpture, though mutilated ; of 

 walls, and doorways, and roofs, and Windows, though 

 imagined to be incomplete and susceptible of considerable 

 restoration. Crumbling, and mutilated, and incomplete 

 they may be. The question is, whether by meddling with 

 them we can do them or ought eise a service. I do not 

 think that we can. On the contrary, I think I can show 

 that we cannot — that, so far from doing good, we may to 

 an incalculable extent be doing evil. 



What, in the first place, is an ancient edifice "? It is a 

 grey relic of ages past and gone. It teils of men and 

 times which have few memorials, and none more visibly 

 and truly attractive than the old walls which they l'eared, 

 and on which they left the impi-ess of their taste. It was 

 oftentimes the scene of ancient faith, and within its limits 

 some portion of that eventful drama has been transacted 

 which forms the staple of our ecclesiastical or civil history. 

 And not only this : the edifice itself contains a brief 

 chapter, a section at least, of the history of art. Its stones 

 cry out to the instructed ear, and reveal wisdom to eyes 

 that have been trained to see. How poor and piain 

 soever, much may be learned from their examination and 

 careful study ; at the least, we can speak with assured 

 certainty of the age of the building under our review, and 



