240 REV. 5TEWAP.T A. MCDOWALL, M.A., B.D., OX 



it became. Wlien our Lord preached and the Apostles followed 

 Him there was no jesthetic adornments either in the discourses or in 

 the accompaniments of them. Paul desired not to preach the 

 (rospel with the wisdom of words, and certainly the private houses in 

 which the believers assembled in those days had no special ornamenta- 

 tion. Yet it was then that devotion was deepest and zeal loftiest. 

 As the Chnrch prospered and the discourses became rhetorical and 

 the meeting places of the Saints became architecturally decorated, 

 real devotion declined. When the Empire became Christian as the 

 outward adornments of worship became more conspicuous the 

 decay of real devotion became more obvious. Indeed, so much so 

 was this the case that in reaction monasticism arose, which has the 

 aspect, at all events, of a worship of ugliness. To live in hovels, to 

 dress in skins or rags, to remain unwashed, became the evidences of 

 superior sanctity. This process went on ; external worship became 

 splendid, the monks living in monasteries became luxurious ; then 

 arose the preaching friars who discarded all outward adornments. 

 The Friars followed the monks in making splendid churches and 

 monasteries. At the revival of letters there was a revival of 

 aesthetics and a degradation of piety, indeed of simple morality. 

 The reaction came in the Reformation. To a certain extent, indeed, 

 the reaction against the predominance of the aesthetic in worship 

 caused the counter-reformation under Ignatius Loyola. 



While heathen religions might consecrate immorality and murder , 

 the religion of Jesus, like Judaism from which it sprang, regards 

 sexual purity and righteousness as sine quibus non in its followers. 

 Though one would not wish to press this unduly, artists have had in 

 all ages a reputation of being somewhat free in regard to morality. 

 At the same time we cannot believe that the unsavory reputation of 

 the Quartier Latin is wholly undeserved. The autobiography of 

 Benvenuto Cellini reveals his attitude, and that of the whole artistic 

 world of his day, to ordinary morality. In regard to poetry, Bums 

 and Byron occur to one at once. But taking individuals in this way 

 may be regarded as scarcely fair. There is another way of looking 

 at the matter. In his Logic, John Stuart 31111, as one of his '''' Canons 

 of Method," mentions that of Concomitant Variations " ; when 

 two phenomena vary in the same way we can deduce that they 

 are causally connected. Do we find, then, that the study of Beauty 

 in a community or in an age coincides with a deepened spirituality. 



