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hatred of hypocrisy, that they carry self-depreciation to an absurd length. But we were talking of the noise of brooks-do they purl? I never heard the word purling applied, except in a slang sense, to anything else.

MAYFLY.-Then I maintain it to be unintelligible. But let Mabel settle it for us. We must be off, for we have five miles to walk. "Dissolvimus hunc convocationem," as the Vice-Chancellor says at Oxford.

TLEPOLEMUS.-With a variation. Take care of your quantities, Manton. MAYFLY.-You have no quantity to take care of. Only a dozen little fish, who ought to have been put in the brook again.

We must observe, that our dialogue will not consent to be enslaved by the classical unities; and, accordingly, it pleases to shift its scene to Mayfly's garden. The sun is winking out of the west, wide awake, though the hour is late, and seemingly enjoying the favour of staying up till nine o'clock, as young children do when there is a party. The arbour would not allow of sufficient circulation of air, and so the tea-table is placed under the large pear-tree. Tea is no meal at all, but only an excuse for a sociable way of sitting. When laid stress upon for itself, it is simply absurd. We recollect being once summoned from the deck to the cabin of a French government steamer, with the announcement, "Le thé est servi." On descending, nothing was there but a range of bearded officers and passengers with cups of discoloured warm water before them. Tea, without the ineffable presence of woman, which imparts to it in brewing some mystic quality that it certainly does not possess of itself, is simply an article in the pharmacopoeia, like castor oil, or any other medicine. In Germany it is sold by druggists, and the demand for tea, except where the English and their habits are known, leads to anxious inquiries about your health. We have a spite against it, because in England it leads to the neglect of coffee, which we maintain to be, when truly tasted, the wine of

the soul. Still, the tea-table, when properly presided over, can become, as most of us know, the enchanter's circle, and the very urn, with its spirit-lamp, is spiritualised. There sits Mabel at its head, French grace and British bloom and Irish archness combined. She confronts the sunset with an embodiment of sunrise; and so the sun with us, as in the Norway summer, "sets into sunrise." The three friends all feel the presence: in one it arouses the yearning of fraternal affection; in another the admiration, mixed with awe, which mechanically doffs the hat in a cathedral; in another, though he knows it not, the adoration of the Virgin-worshipper before her most renowned shrine. All this is felt, though anything else is expressed.

THISTLEDOWN.-Miss Mayfly, your brother interrupted us in a discussion about the noise which brooks made, and by what name it ought to be called; and we agreed to refer the matter to your decision. What word do you think expresses it best?

MABEL.-You mean the noise that a brook makes at a little rapid, which is something between the rushing of a waterfall and the whispering of a quiet stream, with grass dangling into it; the noise that puts one to sleep, or, if one lies awake, produces daydreams. [Fluff, don't bite my foot.]

THISTLEDOWN.-Precisely.

MABEL.-Well, I should have thought you far too restless ever to have listened to it.

THISTLEDOWN. -The thistledown is blown about by every wind, but it settles at last. You were not answering my question.

MABEL-Well, then, I think the sound of the brook is not to be expressed by words. Like everything most subtle in creation, whether sight, or sound, or feeling, I know of nothing but music that will express it. Musical it is, but it is not song; or, if a song, it is one of a most eternal monotony, such as can come from the lips of no earthly singer. I incline to the opinion of the German, who, after listening to the noise of the mill-wheel in the brook, came to the conclusion that it must be a chant of the fairies

"Das kann kein Rauschen seyn. Es singen wohl die Nixen In jedem klarem Bach." Now, the fairies having plenty of time, and nothing to do but to sing on for ever, have probably adopted as their own this kind of rondeau, which is at once strangely sweet and utterly monotonous.

THISTLEDOWN. I hope I am not ungallant; but that is a sort of lady's

reason.

TLEFOLEMUS.And all the finer questions of mind and morals can only be decided by a lady's reasons. Her instinct is as superior in acuteness to our logic as the sword of Saladin, which shore the veil, was sharper than that of Richard, which clove the block. What is that mottled cover peeping out from under the teatray?

MABEL-Only something I took to steady it.

MAYFLY.-The tea-tray will be quite steady enough without it. I suppose you were reading some foreign novel. No, it is a map "Karte over Norge." What does that mean? THISTLEDOWN.-It means that

Miss Mayfly has taken my excellent map of Norway to steady the teathings with. I like freedom, but I do not like liberties.

MABEL.-It is no harm for me to take a liberty as long as others enjoy such abundant freedom.

THISTLEDOWN.-Do you wish me, by forcing me to go without my map, to be benighted on the Dovrefield, and die like a babe in the wood?

MABEL. I do not see how you can well be benighted where there is no night; and your want of the necessary innocence would make your death seem less like that of a babe in the wood than of an imp in the bottle.

TLEPOLEMUS.-That's a settler for you. It seems to me that you can manage to get settled without going so far as Norway. . . . . Lionel and Mabel are always sparring, or rather they continue in a state of intermittent hostility, secret or open; but, like Mouravieff and Williams, they observe the courtesies of war, and do not like each other the less for the blows that have passed between them.

THE POETRY OF CHRISTIAN ART.

M. Rio is earnestly possessed of the one idea of which this work is the enthusiastic yet blind elaboration. His enthusiasm begets an eloquence always pleasant to follow, and the blindness of his devotion, precluding extended vision, gives to the treatise a consecutive and consistent unity. The grand idea which has taken possession of his mind is the historical art-manifestation of the Christian religion; the development of those high art-types and forms whereby so wondrously, during the middle ages, the invisible truths of Christianity obtained an outward and visible expression. In what manner and through what agencies the new religion during the earlier centuries struggled for an appropriate art language in which to write its history and express its thoughts, wants, and aspirations; how this pictorial language, at first faltering and meagre, at length became forcible, glowing, and eloquent these are the topics to which M. Rio now calls our attention. He writes in the spirit of the times of which he treats; he speaks of the Madonna and the saints with a reverence and a worship which befits that Church to which he evidently himself belongs; and hence it is not remarkable that, while we admire his earnest advocacy, we dissent from his conclusions. We propose in the following pages to discuss the important topics in art, history, and philosophy which in this work are brought be

fore our notice.

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The origin of Christian art was wholly different from that of the Christian religion. The art of Christendom came not by revelation, but through development. Its earliest works, while Christian in subject, were Pagan in type and style. Christian mosaics in the nave of Sta. Maria Maggiore do not materially differ from the Pagan bas-reliefs on the column of Trajan. The mural paintings of the catacombs, and their earliest sculptured sarcophagi, are Ro

man both in the type of the heads and in the treatment and character of the drapery. The decorations likewise which adorn their chapels are similar to the arabesques found in the baths of Titus and in the houses at Pompeii. There can be little'doubt, indeed, that Pagan artists were frequently employed on these Christian works. We would readily have arrived at a different conclusion; we would rather have found in the catacombs an art pure and uncontaminated. We would eagerly have recognised in the earliest representations of Christ, the type of his doctrines and mission; and it was with reluctant regret that we were forced to the conclusion that these earliest heads were likewise Roman and Pagan in origin. The RomanPagan and this Roman-Christian are indeed in art-style identical. The two grand Christian sarcophagi of St Helena, the mother of Constantine, and St Constantia, his daughter, both now in the Vatican museum, are essentially Pagan, and in art, style, and degradation, do not materially differ from the debased small bas-reliefs of Eneas and Dido of the same epoch, likewise in the Vatican

museum.

The new and pure faith thus adopted the corrupt art-style of the religion it superseded. Christian art, in lieu of rising into a life and purity of form commensurate with language, sank step by step still the religion of which it became the lower in debasement, tlll it reached for a time virtual extinction, in the annihilation of that Roman nationality from whence it sprang.

The

We here speak merely of the artmerits of these early works; it is not now our province to decide_on their theological importance. Catacombs of Rome, in their endless avenues of graves, their sculptured sarcophagi, painted walls, inscriptions, and relics, doubtless afford a most important and exciting field for historical research. Day by day, as

The Poetry of Christian Art, translated from the French of A. T. RIO. London: T. Bosworth.

1854.

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the workmen extend their excava-
tions, they exhume, as it were, an
interred Christianity. At Hercula-
neum and Pompeii, the depths of the
earth have faithfully and zealously
guarded the secrets of domestic life
among the Pagans; and in like man-
ner the Roman Catacombs of St
Calixtus, St Agnes, and St Alexan-
dria, have for ages concealed, now in
these last days to reveal, the wor-
ship, the faith, as well as the perse-
cutions, of the early Christian Church.
It cannot, then, be matter of aston-
ishment that men of zeal and know-
ledge should ardently devote their
lives to such investigations. With
great ingenuity and research they
are now, day by day, elaborating to
still further completion a system of
Christian symbolism, and thence de-
ducing and corroborating the articles
of Christian faith. It is, however, to
be regretted that the men chiefly de-
voted to these investigations are, by
their Church and position, pledged
to dogmatic conclusions; that, con-
sequently, their interpretations evince
ingenious subtlety and a straining
of evidence rather than the free re-
sult of bold inquiry. It is greatly
to be desired that men in our own
Church, entitled by position and edu-
cation to command attention, should
earnestly devote their learned leisure
to the interpretation of these Chris-
tian hieroglyphics. It is a field pro-
mising a rich harvest. We have been
informed that evidence has been
brought together, which satisfactorily
proves that catacombs recently dis-
covered date back to the time of the
Apostles. Let this evidence be sifted,
and let the world know upon reliable
testimony what these sepulchres,
churches, and dwellings really con-
tain. Let it be ascertained in
what century the Madonna was first
painted or sculptured as an object of
worship at what epoch the keys
were given to St Peter-and whether
symbols representative of the Eucha-
rist do teach the real presence.
Again, we say, it is not our province
to determine these questions: at pre-
sent we merely bring them to the
notice of those whom they may con-

cern.

It is here our purpose to speak of these remains merely as art-products. We again repeat, that in art

character they are Pagan and Roman, not Christian; that in style these Christian subjects are identical with the Pagan of the same epoch. It is natural that the zealous, interested in these investigations, should overlook the origin of that art which thus serves as important evidence; but it is important that Protestants should know what is the credibility and authenticity of these pictorial documents. We have purposely insisted on their Pagan origin, because we know that the historical connection subsisting between the art and ceremonials of the two religions is often willingly forgotten. Now, to our mind, this corrupt origin of Christian art in great measure vitiates the credibility of its testimony. We are unwilling to admit a degraded art, the offspring of an antagonistic religion, executed in some instances by the hands of Pagan artists, as a trustworthy witness of the truth and purity of Christianity.

The earliest so-called Christian art of the Western Empire thus terminates without leaving on record any adequate expression of the spirit, the purity, and elevation of the new religion. At length this degradation of the West was displaced by the debility and lifeless mannerism of Eastern or Byzantine art. As to the demerits of this school there is so little difference of opinion, that discussion becomes unnecessary. The development, however, of a new type in the history of art demands some notice. It appears to have been felt that Christianity called for a fresh artmanifestation; that pagan types were wholly inadequate for the embodiment of the spirituality, the humility, the passive virtues and inner life of the new-born religion. It must be admitted, however, that this renewed attempt to give to the Christian faith an outward form was attended with little success. Those who have seen the long, meagre, and morose countenances of the Byzantine Madonnas and Saints, bearing the impress of prolonged suffering and permanent discontent, the hands and feet attenuated and nerveless, the whole body emaciated and powerless, may well wonder how such works could sustain the faith or aid the

worship of any people. Yet in the history of art-types this school is important. We here find a strongly inarked and widely diffused typical form reigning supreme during several centuries, and even to this day maintaining its sway in the Eastern Church-a type not derived from the study of nature, but the product of secluded, morbid, and monastic thought. Late Pagan-and consequently Roman-Christian art had become a low conventional nature. Byzantine, on the other hand, took the form of a low conventional ideal. Now, in these two different results are involved two diverse mental operations. In the debased Roman we see the individual actual model merely degraded and conventionalised, the whole art-operation beginning and ending in the external world. In the equally though differently debased Byzantine, the first process appears to have been mental, not material: a thought, an idea, an abstract conception of Christianity, not an actual model, constituted the originating starting-point; and upon and around this thought, idea, or conception, was moulded an outer and corresponding bodily form. As we have before stated, this early and difficult attempt proved a total failure. It failed, probably, on two grounds. First, that the originating inward idea was inadequate and unworthy; and, secondly, because that knowledge of nature and of the relations between the inner and the outer worlds requisite for translating the invisible idea into its correspond ing visible type, was wholly wanting. Although, however, this attempt at an outward statement of Christianity proved wholly unsatisfying, yet we may well rejoice that the movement was at least in the right direction. It has always seemed to us most fortunate that classic art speedily sank into utter and hopeless debasement, and therefore neglect that so ultimately the Christian might arise a new and underived creation-not claiming, it is true, like the religion itself, any direct revelation, but content with becoming the earnest and expressive language of the aspirations which that revelation had inspired. Byzan

tine art had thus, at least, the merit of being uncontaminated by pagan taint: it became in history a fresh starting-point; it constituted a barrier between the classic and the subsequent Christian; and thus served for coming years to protect the art of promise against the invasion of the more powerful past, until the time' had arrived when Christian types became consolidated, and Christian art, in the full individuality and intensity of its spirit, was firmly established.

A striking confirmation of the thought-origin of Byzantine art-types is found in their satisfying the requirements and phases of thought. These Byzantine pictures by it would seem an unearthly spell of ugliness, rather than, through the fascination of beauty, specially incite the worship of the multitude. It is these Byzantine Madonnas, dark, dirty, and forbidding, some of which are ascribed to the hand of St Luke, that generally possess the gift of miracle, and receive from their grateful votaries the most costly offerings. It is not the holy families of Raphael, not the holy saints of Fra Angelico and Perugino, the true miracles of art, which are endowed with supernatural powers, but rather these Byzantine products of monastic thought and secluded prayer, which, by their distance from nature, would seem to carry the thoughts into the supernatural. It was, therefore, perhaps fitting that this strange and unreal manifestation should become the basis of that true and exalted Christian art, which created the divine the supernatural around and within out of the human, and discovered the natural.

We think that M. Rio, in searching for the poetry of Christian ait, has failed to find its true philosophy. He comprehends its soul, but does not understand by what means that soul has taken to itself a fitting body. He is so intent on the psychology of art that he has neglected its physique, and would appear to suppose that a picture is the exclusive result of prayer, and in no way the product of study. It is this very error, however, which gives the chief value and interest to his work. In the present

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