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ing, and so turn rare and occasional impulses of genius into maxims of taste for daily use.

In ecclesiastical architecture more especially, it is most important to keep the forms in continual harmony with the occupation; the primary intent in which should ever be to help forward devotion-to be, like Jacob's ladder, planted indeed on the earth, but its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. We shall find, on examination, that the buildings of this class, which have received the most unqualified stamp of approval, and have stood as models of taste for succeeding ages, have been such as embodied acknowledged principles or associations of the religion to which they were consecrated, and so made every glimpse of them from a distance, and every nearer approach which brought within view the external decorations, and every entrance of the portal and progress to the interior of the building, each one a higher and higher act of devotion in that religious service for which the fabric was erected.

The builders of religious edifices must remember that worship is the use of the building, and must endeavour to infuse the character of that worship into the forms and arrangement of every part of the building; so that whenever the temple was seen, it might recall emotions similar to those which should accompany all the services carried on within its walls. Even in the heathen temples this congruity between the structure and its uses was observed, and much more should it be retained in Christian temples; and in proportion as it is preserved in both, the impropriety will be most apparent of building Christian churches upon the plan of heathen temples, the services being so entirely dissimilar. The heathen idolatries, so far as they influence the form of their temples, may be reduced to two classes-the first, gross and sensual, beginning with departed heroes, or demigods, and ending in the worship of devils, and entire degradation of thought and feeling; the second, intellectual, beginning with the heavenly bodies, and the powers and influences of nature, and ending in the impersonation of these, and the worship of Apollo as lord of the sun, and Jupiter, whether imbrius, fluvialis, &c., or wielding the thunders of Olympus. The temples of the first class of worshippers were originally caverns, as in the remaining excavations of Elephanta and Ipsambul; and this original character was retained in their subsequent buildingsmountains of masonry like the pyramids, and those generally truncated, and as it were decapitated-narrow descending passages, as if leading to the infernal regions; and the very figures

in keeping with this degradation, bestial forms and features, made to displace "the human face divine." The mountain top, crowned with fire altars, was the place where those of the second class originally worshipped; and when they built temples the place of worship was roofless-the idol stood sub Dio-the magnificent Parthenon was but the screen of a court, and above its walls, above its lofty porticoes, the gilded spearhead of the Minerva of Phidias glittered from afar, and told to distant beholders wherefore the gorgeous pile was erected, and what was the religious service carried on within.

The Christian worship is like the vision of St. John in Patmos -a door opened in heaven, and an approach to the throne of God; who, though he dwelleth not in temples made with hands, yet hath promised that wheresoever true worshippers come together, there he will be with them. Though the early Christians were, by the many persecutions they underwent, driven to the necessity of frequently worshipping in caves and catacombs, such places are wholly incongruous with Christianity; and the roofs and windows, which do not well accord with Grecian architecture, are indispensable in Christian worship. And therefore it is that all persons of devout feelings and correct taste have given so decided a preference to the pointed style of architecture for churches-a style which has so entirely grown out of the wants, and desires, and feelings of the Church, that it might well be called the ecclesiastical style of architecture. In specimens of this style our own country is peculiarly rich; and a great number of these are models of purity also, which we may study with as much advantage for ecclesiastical purposes as others may study the Parthenon, to which nothing need be added, from which nothing can with propriety be taken away-an advan tage which our country mainly owes to the comparative purity of our faith.

The various ingenious accounts of the origin of the pointed architecture will not satisfy any unprejudiced mind, because they have sought for it in speculation, rather than by examining its introduction and progress step by step. The intersection of semicircular arches, and the ramifications of the long perspective of an avenue, suggest associations to us who are familiar with pointed architecture, but would go a very little way indeed towards explaining its origin, and not help us at all in accounting for either the perfect beauty of its forms, or the astonishing skill displayed in its geometrical constructions. These combinations of taste and skill never come by chance, but are the results of feeling and practice combined, and gradually perfected by many successive experiments. We are astonished at such an union

of lofty, yet slender, piers; bold, yet graceful, span of arch; solid, yet light, construction of all the parts of these buildings; and we find, when examining them historically, that these stupendous results were not struck out at once, or attained by the fortunate rashness or rare genius of a single generation. We find that the science was rather the accumulation and the enlargement of traditionary skill, and that the defects were rather those of adhering to, than departing from, the practices of their predecessors.

In some respects the builders of our churches have certainly departed from the sound principles of Christianity in following early precedent-such as the introduction of grotesque and even diabolic figures into the carved work, both of wood and stone, and the giving the altar or table the form of a sarcophagus. Both these practices are remains of the early Church worship in catacombs a necessity which the Church would have been most glad to have avoided, and which we, who are under no such necessity, are bound to repudiate. Life, new life, is the Christian calling; this we are bound to manifest, and shall desire to see in all around us. "Why seek ye the living among the dead-He is not here, He is risen:" this is our watchword. Our God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

We are glad to find that this chart is dedicated, by command, to the Prince of Wales; and we hope that it will obtain the circulation which its beauty and merits well deserve.

ART. VIII.-The Life and Times of John Reuchlin, or Capnion, the Father of the German Reformation. By FRANCIS BARHAM, Esq., Editor of the Hebrew and English Bible, Collier's "Ecclesiastical History," &c. London: Whittaker and Co. 2. The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola, illustrating the Progress of the Reformation in Italy during the Fifteenth Century. London: Whittaker and Co.

THE biographies of truly great men are entitled to especial regard; they demand at once the scrutiny of the critic and the attention of the student: for if the proper study of mankind is man, and if example is the living law, no less potential in its

than genial in its influence, we cannot dispense with biographical record. It is, in our estimation, the most instructive and interesting department of literature-one which best combines the useful with the agreeable. It forms and educates our minds by the enchantment of sympathy, without the struggle of

intellect the sweat of soul. It insinuates with the utmost gentleness higher lessons of life and character than can be acquired by the hardest studies of metaphysics. For in biography, spirit appeals to spirit, deep calls unto deep; and, by a kind of moral electricity, the spiritual characteristics of the hero delineated, excite respondent phenomena in the experience of the reader: his being itself is ennobled by the same process as his learning is improved, and his very nature is regenerated, while his imagination is entertained.

Such is the transforming efficacy of biographic delineation. Here are no dry, cold, impalpable abstractions, glaring over the sphere of our vital experience like the unsubstantial meteors, that, riding on the wings of the wind, traverse the clouds of midnight; but all is definite, clear, life-warm heroism-virtue in action, rousing us to kindred dignity, filling us with passionate emulation. And therefore Deity himself, in his inspired word, hath sanctioned the most copious use of biographical illustration. The Bible is no system of hard, subjective, technical theology, like that which figures in the ex-suffocated folios of the schoolmen. No; its doctrines are vital essences-the living experiences of man, and angel, and devil; and divine hypostasis manifested in the flesh. Hence we may trace no little amount of the astonishing power of the Bible, regarding it even in its lowest light, as a mere literary composition. It is, and must ever be, in the intensest degree, what the Germans call " a world book"-a book of the vividest interest to all times and all nations-a living mirror at once of divinity and humanity—a biographical record of the universe. Therein the highest laws, being conveyed in the narrative and the parable, come home to human hearts with a force of sympathy unparalleled, vibrate through the recesses of conscience with the rapidity of heaven's own lightning, and bind all ranks and classes of society in one spell of thrilling emotion. Oh! most truly says the poet, "A touch of feeling makes the whole world kin."

But our present purpose is not to enlarge on the merits of biography in general, but to notice the two biographical works at the head of this article. Biographical works they are in the strict sense of the word, and withal sufficiently remarkable. Whatever their merits and defects, they possess a certain idiosyncrasy-a specific character, and purpose, and significance— which arrest attention, and almost command investigation. There is something startling and stirring in the fact of being thus suddenly brought into a sort of personal fellowship with those minds of the mighty dead, whose names we had only heard with vague and indefinable curiosity. It is almost as if spirits

VOL. XIV.-L

from some other sphere of being-yet spirits who have left imperishable traces of themselves on our death-smitten planet—had deigned to revisit us, and utter their revelations to us, and take up their abode with us.

The first biography of a great man which issues from the press always forms, more or less, an epoch in literature. It is the moral resurrection of a master mind making his avatar and epiphany in the world again. This is, at least, one true solution of the gorgeous fable of the phoenix-the resolution of death into life, and ashes into immortalities. For the personal decease of a great man gives rise to his biographical existence-a literary vitality perhaps more potent, as well as more durable, than his bodily life could be.

The more, therefore, the literature of any given nation is replenished by spirited and spiritual biographers of heroic men, the more sacred, the more majestic it becomes. The great cloud of witnesses totruth and virtue is thus indomiciled, like a shechinah, to kindle the enthusiasm of the people in the worship of the good and the fair. Yea, it becomes as a pillar of fire to guide them through the darkness of the wilderness. Such books are the true oracles of society: they display the excellencies to which saints and sages have attained, and prompt us, at least, to rival, if not to surpass them.

For these reasons we welcome these lives of Reuchlin and Savonarola. The authors have happily succeeded in presenting us with an original, vivid, and graphic sketch of their characters and writings. There is a certain freshness and power of genius in their modes of thought and styles of writing impressive by earnestness of purpose, and fascinating by poetry of sentiment. They emit a quickening, vivifying influence to the reader's mind; and by the boldness, yet truthfulness of their conceptions, do him the greatest of all services, by teaching him to think for himself. And thus these works afford a striking, and evidently intentional, contrast to the quiet, sober iterations of hackneyed and emasculated system-mongers, who overwhelm the theological press with the abortions of dulness and bigotry. We cannot, therefore, but congratulate the enterprising publishers on the appearance of these biographies, and we wish them every success in their intended series.

We now proceed to a more critical account of Mr. Barham's "Life and Times of Reuchlin." From his preface to the volume we extract the following remarks:

"In the title-page of this work, Reuchlin, or Capnion, is called the Father of the German Reformation; for he appears to be better entitled to this honourable appellation than any other individual. Born in

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