146 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Mat, 



and painting," says the author of 'Records of a Route, &c.' " is intelli- 

 gible enough ; not so that which consists in treasures hoarded up in 

 cases, which do not contribute even to make any show in the way of 

 the furniture of a church, as is the case with magnificent candelabra 

 and other utensils. Treasures of that kind are fitter for a goldsmith's 

 or jeweller's shop, or for the toilette of a fine lady, than as offerings to 

 a saint." In regard to relics — but no ! there is no occasion for our 

 making any comment upon them, they being of themselves calculated 

 to do eminent disservice now to the cause of Romanism, by exciting 

 contempt and ridicule against it. 



The second work whose title is prefixed to our article is by a minis- 

 ter of the reformed church in Switzerland, but who nevertheless advo- 

 cates some relaxation of that austerity which has hitherto characterised 

 the religious community to which he belongs, and given a repulsive 

 coldness to social worship, the reverse of alluring. The ascetic 

 renunciation, he observes, of all that partakes of aesthetic feeling — of all 

 that ministers to refined, intellectualized enjoyment — demands a degree 

 of spiritual perfection that falls to the lot of (ew ; while to the many, 

 it only renders what ought to be devotion a frigid and formal penance. 

 And indeed the exaggerated rant of the conventicle seems to be almost 

 necessarily resorted to, by way of equivalent, for producing that ex- 

 citement which the religious pageants of the Romish church supply. 

 Both extremes have one aim in common, and both partake of acting 

 for the sake of effect, though the means resorted to for producing it 

 appear so contradictory. 



Contenting himself with cautioning against abuses, the anonymous 

 writer last referred to expressly recommends that the church should 

 be allowed to enlist the fine arts in its service. Neither is he by any 

 means singular in his views, for both the Lutheran and the Calvinistic 

 churches in Germany have of late begun to relax their former strict- 

 ness in that respect ; and that reaction seems now to be taking place 

 for which the public were prepared by the official announcement of 

 the Prussian minister Von Schuckmann, in 1814, wherein it was sig- 

 nified that it behoved the church " to give greater solemnity to the 

 form of religious worship, inasmuch as that at present adhered to does 

 not at all address itself to the feelings, nor is sufficiently impressive." 



How far the same remark applies to the service of the church of 

 England, we pretend not to judge; yet certain it is that a great 

 majority of our churches, including those of some of the wealthiest 

 parishes, are barely decent, and no more, in their fitting up — not 

 squalid, indeed, but stamped by such begrudging penuriousness, as to 

 betoken anything but excess of zeal. Nor can we attribute tliis either 

 to the rigid ascetic notions of the age, or the poverty of the country ; 

 for the age is liberally indulgent enough, and of wealth there is also 

 enough, but the spirit of the age is selfishness — cold, calculating self- 

 ishness. At the same time, it must be allowed that the church itself 

 has rather repelled than invited private munificence to contribute 

 towards the adornment of its temples and its service. However, we 

 will not quarrel with such a state of things, even for the sake of 

 upholding the cause of art, towards which our affections yearn. Yet, 

 while we make such concession, we expect some also in return, and, 

 tlierefore, claim that Protestantism should not be made to bear the 

 odium of condemning us to shut thedoorsof our churches against works 

 of art. If we either cannot afford, or do not think it worth while to 

 obtaia them, we are perfectly satisfied with either of those honest and 

 very intelligible reasons: it is our pockets, not our Protestantism, that 

 suggest our sensitive scruples. As to scruples of any other sort, they 

 are all make-believe. Tliere is not the slightest danger whatever of 

 pictures tempting us to relapse into Popery, or gaining us over to its 

 monkish charlatanry, its polytheism, and its miracle-mongers. We 

 are just as likely to become converts to a belief in witchcraft, as to 

 Romish idokitry. The taste of the age in osteology is for bones of 

 megatheriums, not for those of Saints. Why then so much affected 

 alarm ? Betw een the doctrines of Romanism and those of Protes- 

 tantism the gulf is so wide that art can never bridge it over; and, of 

 the two, Romanism is infinitely more in danger than Protestantism, 

 for the simple reason that is stated by the Italians themselves, in a pro- 

 verb that cuts their own creed most keenly — "Con l'evaKGElio si 



diventi eretico !" Yes, the Gospel is, after all, the great and never- 

 failing source of heresy — of that most awful heresy which alienates 

 men from the craftily-devised chimeras, and the simulated Christianity 

 of Rome. 



ON GRECIA.N ARCHITECTURE— ITS BEAUTIES, AND THE 



DANGER ATTENDING THE IMITATION OF THE 



STYLE IN MODERN TIMES. 



To point out in what consist the qualities of beauty, and to make 

 one kind of definition universally applicable, is an all but impossible 

 matter in any case, and is especially difficult in all that relates to 

 architecture. By Mr. Alison it has been ably argued " that in 

 every subject that form, whether angular or curvilinear, which is most 

 expressive of these qualities (viz. fineness, delicacy, or ease,) is the 

 most beautiful form." We find little to oppose in that part of his 

 essay which treats of colours and sounds; but on the source of the 

 emotion in forms, and more especially in architecture, he fails. His 

 fundamental principle is that "matter is not beautiful in itself, but 

 derives its beauty from the expression of mind," (Essay on the Nature 

 and Principles of Taste) and he instances the triumphal arch, and the 

 temple in its primitive state, as beautiful objects, so considered, only 

 from the perceptions of grandeur and solemnity, which they are cal- 

 culated to awaken. But surely he too hastily assumes them to be 

 beautiful, for few modern architects can see in the triumphal arch 

 great beauty of form ; and we might adduce many examples of temples, 

 by which the emotion would not be excited, solely from their wanting 

 those decorative features essential to its production. Mr. Alison 

 proves, which it was scarcely required to do, that certain feelings are 

 excited by the sight of the triumphal arch, of the undecorated temple, 

 of the hearse, and of the engines of war ; but we cannot but hold, that 

 he errs in considering those to be emotions of beauty, for we most 

 carefully discriminate between the beautiful, and what is merely the 

 sumptuous, the reverential, the solemn, or the terrible, each of which 

 may powerfully influence the mind, without at the same time being 

 any proof that beauty exists, or can be perceived, in the object. An 

 edifice may possess no one feature which an artist would call beautiful, 

 and yet produce the very feelings of which Mr. Alison speaks. The 

 uneducated, in standing before a large and costly edifice, maybe heard 

 to express extravagant admiration, but it is alike with them whether 

 the design be excellent or not; they lavish the terms "grand" "im- 

 pi/sing" upon structures possessing no one merit, because they excite 

 in them wonder, mistaken for an emotion of beauty. — Another current 

 opinion, which is at war with true principles of taste, is, that awy 

 building of stone is better than one of brick, whatever the design. 

 If it be true^ that the ordinary forms of the vegetable world possess 

 as great beanty as the costly exotics of the conservatory ; — if it was 

 from the oak leaf, from the parsley, and the cabbage, that Gothic 

 architects most loved to mould the graceful foliage of their capitals 

 and bosses ; — we ought from them to learn the true value of what 

 happens to be common, and easy of attainment. Of what may be 

 done in brick and stone, whether in the Gothic or the Italian style, the 

 earlier and later portions of Hampton Court palace bear sufficient 

 witness. The evidence of durability is as high in favour of brick as 

 of stone. — But, whether we entirely concur in the opinions of Mr. 

 Alison, or not, it must be granted, that much of onr admiration of 

 Grecian architecture must be ascribed to associations connected with 

 the days of Phidias and Pericles, of the splendour which shone round 

 all the arts, where, "on the Ega:an shore," stood the temples of Mi- 

 nerva and Theseus, and where poetry, philosophy, and the arts, 

 combined to render " the violet queen" the centre of an ever -spreading 

 halo, undimmed through all succeeding time. Who, that loves art, 

 poetry, philosophy, liberty, does not feel his soul expanded and ele- 

 vated at the name of Athens? what artist, at the sight of Grecian 

 architecture, does not think of the mind that conceived, and the people 



