Eikon Eaeyoepia.

EIKON EAEYOEPIA .

IiOXDOir , - SATURDAY , OCTOBER 29 , 1859 .

THE dissolution of tlie Roman empire set free that current of thought -which had for ages heen flowing upwards , and of -which the mighty influence was vastly increased by a profoundly organized repression . It would be a curious speculation to trace the -Avorking of that law wliich overtakes the steps of power , and as if with a breath , dissolves into mist the muniments and splendour of overgrown states . When the fiat was issued , Roma est dalandcv the furthest ends of the world heard and rushed to be witnesses of the

judgment . There cannot be the slightest doubt that the new religion which had been born amongst the olives of Gethsemane , and was baptized in the blood of the Holy One on the Golgotha without the city , contributed more than any other influence to the imperial catastrophe . The new philosophy was radical

in its operation . It had in its precepts the hi g hest elements of success . It sank deeply in the gentler nature of woman , and woman grafted it on the tender mind of infancy , when in its growth it deepened and widened the nobler sentiments without doing harm to the courage or the stern resolution wliich the period of manhood entails .

In no art is this coming together of the nations of the world more clearly indicated than in architecture . Iu no art is more faithfully illustrated the hope of religion , tlie gentleness of charity , the unfaltering fortitude of faith . The tent of the wanderer grew , as it were , into a domed p innacle of marble and gold . Side by side , taking , however , each its complexion from tho different characters and manners of its

authors , grew up the pointed arch and tho pointed—hut more oriental , lighter , and somewhat fantastic—dome and cupola . Each distinguishes a school of architecture , but the latter has been greatly degraded from , its original purpose . Both advanced in development until too profuse and luxurious ornament had obliterated the original outline . The tide of

immigration which travelled along the shores of the Euxiue and crossed the Hellespont in the ox hides with which the Tartars' tents were covered , to whom not the climate but tho luxuriance of eastern Europe was new—imported in this exodus such outlines as were suggested by the undulatingplains over which they had been accustomed to roam , and

which they had left , but whither thoy had no disposition to return . The circular form was evidently the form which seemed to them to liave the most capacity for convenience . This form , it would seem , recommended itself , if we would argue from its prevalence at any particular era , to the inhabitants of the cast .

The rotunda was , originally , to the pagan of the plain , what the square apartment hollowed from the rock was to the 2 'tigan of the city . At first a rude circulnr wall of stones : it grew in height and width to be the temple of the astronomer , wherein the living fire was kept ever kindled , and around whose walls were represented the constellations of the heavens .

But the circular form might have been necessary as well aa convenient . Ono ofthe earliest forms of religious ceremonial was the procession in a circle . In many of the ancient sacrifices it was customary to conduct the victim at a certain distance around the simulacrum . There was a symbolic meaning , too , attached to the circle as the emblem of eternity ,

having neither end nor beginning , which has survived the pagan rite , and is to this day found to be taken with the same meaning by the superstitious but devout children of the Byzantine churches . The procession by torch light in the . Rleusinia was evidently of oriental origin ; and the sacred way over which the statue of Jakchosthe son of the goddess

, Demetor , decorated with a garland of myrtle , and bearing a torch iu the hand , was carried on the sixth day of tho . Eleusinian rites , was also a circular route . The columnated rectangular system of Greek architecture

was capable of a purity and severity unattainable in any other form , and therefore the circular , except for barely monumental purposes , was religiously excluded . But when the Eoman arch came into vogue , the endless variety of the circular form became understood . Still it does not appear to have suggested itself as applicable to religious edifices .

The Colosseum and other circular buildings designed to hold immense ^ numbers of the people , and tlie Pantheon , afford specimens of the round buildings of ancient Pome , As the empire declined , luxury contributed combinations of the circle and the square undetermined by any fixed rules . The inharmonious Mendings aro discoverable in many of the

remains of Eoman art . The custom of the Eomans to build almost entirely with brick favoured this license . But when the finger of the Almighty had written upon the throne of the Cresars as he , had formerly written upon the walls of Babylon , that the / idols should be thrown down , and that a purer worshi p should exalt tho sanctuary of the heathen , a

new direction was given to religious . art . The change was not perhaps immediate , hut in a century it was complete . The doors through which an excited multitude used to pour now admitted tho humble Christian alone , who approached Avith holy fear , and CQmmuned personally with the Deity . Where the laws had been accustomed to be explainedwhere

, men bargained—where the edicts of power had been usually - promulgated—where were the statues of the deities which represented the greatness , the glory , the prowess , the wealth of Eome , of her soldi ers , her j udges , her senators , her 2 n-oconsuls—where

her heralds shouted that Carthago was overthrown , that Jugurtha was subdued—where Cicero declaimed—where Cataline lorded it , and fretted his short hour—even there , in the heart of an empire , was built the first Christian church in the form of a cross , tho eiKtiiv e "\ Evdepia , or symbol of deliverance , the memorial of tho greatest crime since the world

began , but also tho emblem of mercy eternal and illimitable . When the seat of empire was transferred to Byzantium , the incursions that had been upon old forms in art by new p hases of opinion , which were altogether as distinct as thoy were novel ( and were not so despised ) , were not long in producing their legitimate effect ; the same devotion which

added arms or transepts to the Roman basilica , also added arms to the circular or domed buildings , so as to represent a cross . The arbor infelix of Cicero , the instrument of shame and disgrace , the infelkc lignum of Seneca , the " accursed tree , " was now raised on high by kings . The cross indeed had been used by pagan nations as a holy symbolbut it

, seems to have been very different in form . At Susa we read of a stone cut with hieroglyphics and cruciform inscriptions , upon which there appears the form of a cross . In the Brahminical dispensation the cross was regarded as the symbol of the divinity . A cross was set on the temple of Serapis as the Egyptian emblem of future life ; sometimes

it represented the four elements . " The sign of the cross , " says Justin Martyr , " is impressed upon the whole of nature . There is hardly a handicraftsman but uses the figure of it among the implements of his industry . It forms a part of man himself , as may be seen when he extends his hands in

prayer . Another old writer , Minuting Felix , says— " Even nature herself seems to have formed this figure for us . We have a natural cross on every ship whose sails are spread ; in every yoke ^ that man forms ; in every outspreading of his arms for prayer . " Thus the form of the cross alread y found in the

arrangements of nature , and among the heathen as the symbol , was yet more forcibly suggested to the early Christians as the distinguishing badge , of their faith . Enthusiasm brought forth new forms out of a new li g ht of faith , and discovered neAV applications for forms that had become obsolete . It would seem as if the old and the new were to meet upon tlie shores of tlie Bosphonis . Churches were built with pointed domes , to which wore attached graceful : > ninnrets