ICONOGRAPHY AND ICONOCLASM.
Iconography, carried to excess, and addressed to the imaginations of an ignorant, an idle, and a vicious populace, naturally leads to idolatry. Hence it was that the inspired law-giver of the Israelites, who was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, that is, was intimately acquainted with the whole system of the Egyptian philosophy and mythology, and had witnessed the pernicious effects of this system on the moral and religious conduct of the Egyptian population, was instructed to guard the Israelites most rigorously, when they came up out of Egypt into the promised land of Canaan, against the sin of idolatry; as the natural consequence of the perversion, the abuse, and the excess of that which in itself, perhaps, and in its origin, might be thought innocent. "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing," &c., is the second commandment of the first table, and therefore cannot be resisted or evaded. But the Iconoclasts are led by their zeal and enthusiasm to overlook the qualifying and important member of the sentence,—"to thyself." Painting, statuary, sculpture,— all the imitative arts,—nay, the very cultivation of the soil, the reproduction of the animal form, and the advances of science, would be retarded, or even annihilated, as far as it depends upon us, were we to attempt to carry into effect, in its utmost latitude, the rigid and literal interpretation of this commandment, which the Iconoclast, without any reserve, limitation, or qualification, would persuade us to adopt. But what is the very substance of the injunction? Thou shalt not make these similitudes,—these works of thine own hands,—"to thyself"—from any selfish motive, for any selfish use or gratification. Much less shalt thou bow down to them and worship them according to thine own will and pleasure. Whenever this was done, the idols, the objects of this perverted taste, were destroyed on the common maxim, that when the cause is removed the effect will cease. And, however much we may regret the loss of many splendid works of art, which might gratify and instruct every generation of mankind, yet we may console ourselves with the reflection that enough remains to illustrate almost every page of history, if we be careful and industrious enough to examine and study them. Much has been lately accomplished in this way; and we are particularly indebted to the
