WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



ciples of modern criticism to Greek and Roman iconogra- 

 phy, and had presented an example of scientific treatment 

 free from such reproach, was a serious iconography of our 

 early Christian monuments possible. Mrs. Jameson was 

 the first to attempt this on a large scale. It was clear to 

 her and here lay the advance which her work reveals 

 that in order to accomplish her colossal task two things 

 must be realized. She must not build on a foundation of 

 material that is imperfect or brought together in a haphaz- 

 ard way. She must not only see and test everything avail- 

 able in the way of monuments, but she must likewise place 

 the productions of literature and poetry beside those of the 

 plastic arts. It was clear to her, also, that, in this case, 

 one would throw light on the other, and that the investi- 

 gator who would lay claim to the name of archaeologist 

 must, moreover, study the spirit of a people in all its 

 monumental and literary manifestations. 



"Mrs. Jameson strove to learn the mind and the mode 

 of early Christian times from the works of the Fathers. 

 She saw in the hymns of the Middle Ages and in the 

 writings of the mystics the sources of the art ideas which 

 disclose themselves in the wall and glass paintings of our 

 cathedrals and in the entrancing creation of a Fiesole. She 

 had also the special advantage of being thoroughly imbued 

 with Dante's ideas of the plastic arts of the Middle Ages. 



"And all this is evidenced in a form which exhibits 

 neither dry dissertation nor wearisome nomenclature. 

 Each of her articles is a little essay. It teaches us what 

 place the Madonna, or St. Catherine, or some other saint 

 has held in the memory and in the imagination of past 

 centuries. We behold the sainted forms flitting before our 

 eyes in all the charm of poetic perfection which was given 

 them by the childlike phantasy of the Middle Ages, and 

 in all the power which they exercised over men's minds, 

 and which, however we may view the religious side of the 



