Esthetic Evolution. 253 



pied therewith, and will address itself to the direct object 

 of the buildings it erects without an eternal retrospect on 

 any particular period. Such ideas will not improbably 

 find their architectural embodiments in some such de- 

 velopment as that here advocated. Therein and thereby 

 all wants and aspirations will find their satisfaction ; and 

 while the actions of the Church in this matter in different 

 preceding epochs will all alike be justified, we shall none 

 the less be encouraged to look forward to other develop- 

 ments and greater glories of religious art than any re- 

 vealed to us in the course of the centuries which are gone. 

 Nullum tempus occurrit ecclesicz ! The ever fruitful mother 

 of beauty and of truth, of holy aspirations and of good 

 works, has not come to the end of her evolution even in 

 the world of art, and one mode has been here indicated 

 in which that evolution may be advantageously worked 

 out. 



Recurring to what has been said as to -the other arts 

 besides architecture, it may, then, in conclusion, be affirmed 

 that there appear to be grounds for thinking that in 

 the whole field of art, music, painting, sculpture, and 

 architecture, our successors may witness a vast, new, com- 

 plex, and stable artistic integration of a special and dis- 

 tinctly Christian character a self-consciousness, as it 

 were, in Christian art such as never was before, and which 

 will appropriately serve to externally clothe and embody 

 that vast and magnificent Christian development for which 



