Architecture, Its Purpose And Place Amongst The Arts.

of prince , ambition of priesthood , or superstition of populace could command . The remains of palaces , temples , and all other monuments , bear so great an affinity to each national style that we may take for granted that domestic buildings must simply have followed in their wake , at a respectful distance . The arts of Egypt and Assyria acted and reacted upon

each other . That of India was a more florid development of them . Greece owed every architectural principle to them , with the most deliberate and masterly adoption . She lopped the flowers from the fair gardens of her neighbours , and then sowed the seed at home , that , wheu they bloomed again , they

might be only Greek . We are accustomed to attribute to her influence all that afterwards was developed upon Italian soil ; but the first rays which dawned on Italian civilization may rather be traced to an Assyrian sun . The Greek influence only developed among the unartistic Romans what they had first borrowed from the first settlers of Etruria . If Greece

had set the example of borrowing , she Grecianized the loan . Rome followed her tempting example , for her people had no originality . But the result was Avidely different . Rome borrowed from two sources , which , in spite of her alliance , proved discordant , —• Greece and Etruria ; and it was in her attempt to

combine them that the principles of true Classic art were first violated . Their artists had little power , their artisans little discrimination . Splendour of eonquest , splendour of shoAV , splendour of luxury , were the ruling passions . And the arts were degraded in being made to serve them . How could a le

peop create what was not in their hearts ? They lost even the glory of their borrowed beauties . Their republican virtues were lost in the pride of their prosperity . The genius of the arts left them and joined their enemies , then a barbarous but more Avorthy racethe Goths . And now we have

, come in the line of this broad sketch , to art reviving ¦ under Christian influences . Europe had been revolutionized ; opinion , social principles , and therefore social Avants , were all changed . Art had to begin again . People Avere in earnest . They worked

earnestly ; but the commonest art principles Avere unknown to them . Old things were not ransacked to be copied , but to be used . The old religion had treated the neAV one roughly . But now the tables were turned ; and the rude Christians ruthlessly pressed everything to their new uses . Nothing fitted anything

else . But , working as they did with an honest recklessness of all criticism , tbe result was sure and the reward great . As their religion was antagonistic to the religion of the old Avorld so were those arts which grew up under its inspiration and flourished to do it honour . Untaught as were their first Avorkmenwith

, rough hands and rude tools they hacked art into shape again . They built and carved Avhatever was in their thoughts . Their work was the embodiment of their own rough sinceritv . And then as they quieted down in calmer times , und thought more gently , and felt more tenderly ; sotoowas their work more tender

, , and refined ; their Avails rose higher , and- with them their pillars and their arches . Every feature was free . As Avith their faith , so with their art . All had been thraldom , now all Avas freedom . Art breathed freely in the fresh atmosphere of its young life . The people Avere true to her , and the monuments of those Christian

what to think . Our difficulty lies in our diffuseness . all worked together Avith one spirit to one eud . There was a good Catholic repudiation of any right of any private judgment . Whatever they were , Theban or Ainevite , Athenian , or Goth , the builder raised the pile , and made it as beautiful as his art could devise ;

the painter covered the walls ; the sculptor filled his allotted stages . If one was a Greek , they were all Greeks , and only knew and cared what was Greek . If one was a Gfoth they Avere all Goths , and only kneAv and cared for what was Gothic . So they Avorked , each family apart , one in

the Avarmth and sunshine of the south , the other in the bleak rain ; but each as a family of brothers ; they worked Avith success , while Ave , as a nation of rivals , work with confusion . It Avas hopeless in this country when high and low Avere entangled in a labyrinth of occupation , to expect that our people should ever

attain to that perception of what is good and true in art , which Avas attained by others in quieter times , when contemplation and time existed as possibilities . People now do not like the trouble of thinking about art , nor of looking below the surface . Abstract beauty is simply a boreand the symbolism of

in-, ward meaning by outward form is pooh-poohed . It has been a most unhappy prejudice , and most common amongst Englishmen , that it is undesirable that England should become an artistic nation . They forget that when art Avas at its zenith in Greecethat country was also at the zenith of its

, glory , and of the vigour of its personal courage , and its manly virtues , sell-devotion , and generosity—faculties which we honour , but have never surpassed . Where arts flourished they spoke the mind of a

naages bear the impress of their truth , their vigour , their energy , and their devotion . "We live in the days of intellectual revolution : never Avas there such a harmony of contradiction as at present . In former times epochs were marked by special characteristics . What Avill ours be called by future generations ? In

domestic life it will probably be called the comfortable epoch;—in social life the discontented epoch . But in art it will be most certainly looked upon as the era of struggle . Our failures Avill be understood if not pardoned , and our difficulties appreciated . Never were there in art greater difficulties than now .

Condemnatory criticism is easy enough . It is all very well to say Avhat Ave ought to be , because we have the failures and successes of other ages clearly before us . But here is all our trouble . In other ages one idea prevailed at a time , and arts rose to a most perfect concert

by their entire harmony . But now , unfortunate ! / , we live in most disturbed atmosphere . Much learning has made us mad . Everybody knows , or is expected to know , everything . The result is that we are suffering from a plethora of technical knowledge . But knowledge never made artists , nor science arts . They

came of a higher source , and stand on a higher lei ^ el . The fact is , that our imaginations have lost their way in a labyrinth of multiplicity . The quieter spirit of former times Avas more akin to the art-spirit , Activity is now-a-days too commonly confounded with bodily and physical movement . But he bno means

y means wished to put art upon stilts . Art needs no balloon to float above the atmosphere of vulgar presumption Avhich is now choking it . The eyes of the public are now so confounded that they do not know