Fig. 6.
marbles, the same character pervades them, one and all. Whether the injudicious restorer, or the destroying Vandal, has set his mark upon them, the Christian character still reveals itself indestructible by either. In their perfect state they were, indeed, “full of mystic significance in the cruciform plan, the lofty arch, the traceried windows, the lateral chapels, and the central elevation. Not a groining, a mullion, or a tracing was there in which the initiated eye did not read some ghostly counsel, or some inarticulate summons to confession, to repentance, or to prayer.”[1]
The decline of ecclesiastical art, consequent on departure from ancient principles, is not confined to this country, or even to England, but, from widely differing causes, has spread over the entire of Europe since the early part of the sixteenth century. The downward progress, however, has within the last ten or twelve years, received a most effectual check. Learned and zealous Catholic artists and antiquaries have, by a return to the principles of the
