such they have ever been; and if of silver, gilt. And this, at first sight, may appear to lie open to the very objection which has been employed against the practice in question; and it may be thought that gilding silver is parallel to plastering walls and painting deal, to make them look like stones and oak. But it is obvious, that to give to what is in itself inferior, an appearance of excellence which it cannot possess, is a very different thing from overlaying with a material still more precious that which in itself is costly and very worthy to be employed. In the Jewish tabernacle there were many commands to overlay wood with brass and gold; but, without dwelling on this, the objection, if valid, would militate against all decoration of churches with colour. But whereas stone is really worthy of being employed in sacred buildings, and silver is also, they may both be rightly rendered worthier still, by adding to them either gold or colour: so also, where brass and copper may legitimately be used, there is nothing to hinder them being overlaid with a more precious metal, for in themselves they would be quite sufficient for the purpose. But although it is very desirable, that all modern inventions and improvements should, if available, be transferred to the service of ecclesiastical art; it is very questionable, whether the compositions, designed to supersede gold and silver, can ever be much employed in sacred use; for, where gold or silver is indispensable, they are by no means to be suffered and where they are not, they are too expensive to be used as substitutes for brass or copper, which for such objects are perfectly satisfactory. But, if we examine the generality even of those works which are now executed in gold and silver, we shall find that these too fall miserably short of the necessary standard. To pass over as utterly unworthy of consideration, and only to be spoken of with contempt, those miserable productions of perverted art, which have so long disgraced our land, those vessels which, employed in sacred uses, and even sometimes approaching to the proper form, yet bear the semblance of nothing but Pagan detail, (and this often of the worst character,) or most unmeaning arabesque and Italian patterns; still even those works, which have some pretension to be considered as specimens of church art, are very poor; for the greater part of them, being cast in a mould, the construction of which causes great expense, and which, when once produced, must therefore be worked out, cannot exhibit any great variety of form; a few patterns, whatever may be their merit,) are the utmost, that the artizans of England can supply: and so the interest of the work is taken away, for how in such processes can the mind be employed? it cannot gradually see the work growing up, or impart fresh beauties to each successive production of the workman's hand. But if some would say, against this, that the nineteenth century cannot bind itself to those low and laborious processes of the fourteenth or the fifteenth, that manual labour is too expensive and too precious, and

that one man may now with ease serve as substitute, where many more would have been required in the days of old, this indeed may be so but, if it be, it is worse than idle to hope ever to see our altars decently adorned, and our churches becomingly provided. So thought not the men of the middle ages: for, wise as this headlong age may deem itself, they too might have saved themselves vast time and trouble, (as it would be termed now,) at the expense of costliness and reality; for surely with their acknowledged skill, they as well as we had it in their power to invent those shorter processes which now seem so desirable, had they chosen so to do: but they did not choose; for the artist then plied no trade; his avocation was in a manner sacred; and theirs was the principle of the ancient painters, who never spared of their richest and costliest colours in describing the form and lineaments of some saintly character, well knowing, that if their earthly reward were little, they were honouring GOD in His saints thereby, and it would be recompensed them in the end.

And now our notice of modern art leads us in natural order to a survey of the forms, which were employed by the craftsmen of a by-gone age: for it is the form most chiefly which in modern works is found to be so greatly deteriorated; and it is very curious, that the same age, which is ever loudest in its demands that every thing should be useful, even though involving the sacrifice of all ornament, should, in the instance of church plate, (from a most miserably depraved taste for what they desire to be thought ornament,) have rebelled most completely against its own idol of utility; for the forms now and of late employed, are in fact the most wonderfully useless that could well be contrived. It is a most true saying, that "where use is exiled beauty scorns to dwell”: but our age has not known how to interpret it: the ancients performed the work which they might have in hand, with a strict regard to the purposes for which it was designed; and so they produced a work not only useful, but very beautiful: now men work for the sake of ornament, and they produce a thing not only hideous, but very useless. Strange indeed must be the taste, and small the perception of beauty, which those possess, who with ancient examples before them, can cleave to the degraded exhibitions of modern art.

In entering upon this portion of our subject, it will suffice to mention the various qualities which are necessary to produce excellence in the sacred vessels and ornaments; and by placing side by side in contrast ancient with modern examples, to show the great superiority of the former over the latter.

One great reason of the inferiority of modern works, as has been already mentioned, is the excessive prevalence of contrivances in order to supersede manual labour, such as moulds and dies, this being done to avoid the ancient and true mode of beating and hammering up the metal. To object altogether to the employment

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of such like mechanical contrivances, would be the part of useless complainers; for it is vain to suppose, that by so doing the stream of invention can be checked, while, by a different course, it might be diverted into a fitting channel. But what can with justice be reprehended, is the present too great use of them, and yet in another sense too little,-too great, if the same few moulds are continually to be repeated,-too little, if the contrivance is to be used at all; for without discussing the absolute merit or failure of work cast in a mould, and the amount of excellence possibly attainable by it, to persist in using the few patterns, (even allowing them to be good,) of which our goldsmiths happen to possess moulds, is manifestly a practice calculated to injure all metallic art; either then the use of these moulds should be abandoned altogether, or else so great a supply should be procured as to compensate for the variety and beauty which would result from the old method. But this confessedly cannot be and there remains no alternative but abandonment: for as things are at present, almost every vessel, without regard to their respective uses, has the same ornaments, the same form, the same character. The ancient ornament was produced entirely by piercing, chasing, graving, and enamel, many of the parts first being formed in thin plates of metal, and then shaped by the pliers. And the effect of the ornamental engraving was increased by hollowing out the ground in certain parts, and filling it in with coloured enamels, and frequently jewels. But the modern works, being for the most part struck in a die, fail invariably in the attainment of that bold relief which in the older works is so admirable. With regard to material, they were guided in great measure by the form of the work desired, according to the intricacy or simplicity of its character. For the chalice and paten of course there was to be employed only gold or silver gilt; and this not only on account of the especial sacredness of these vessels, but also owing to the superior malleability of these metals, which may with facility be beaten up into forms, which the greatest amount of labour could scarcely effect with others; but the basons and other vessels, where gold was beyond their power, were made of latten or copper gilt. Thus much, without entering into a more minute inquiry respecting the discrepancies between modern and ancient processes, may suffice to explain in some degree the difference of principle, which we are chiefly concerned to establish, the one resulting in nothing but outward show, the other in richness and reality.

To begin then with the furniture of the altar, and, as first in order, with those ornaments which have their place upon the superaltar. We have before us, (not at this time to mention the altarcross,) the two candlesticks. These should consist of five parts; and whatever be the amount of enrichment to be lavished on them, these parts must be clearly preserved and it is to the neglect of

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some one or more of these essential portions, that the uncouthness and inutility of modern candlesticks is to be attributed. The five parts are, 1. The foot. 2. The stem. 3. The knop, which, for convenience of lifting, is placed about the middle of the stem. The bowl to receive the droppings of the wax, and, 5. The pricket terminating the stem in which the taper is fixed. When, however, the candlestick is small, a socket is allowable; for with the pricket for the small candles, there is a risk of their being split. The above mentioned parts are invariably found in all old examples ; but most rarely in those of modern times; the base certainly remains, but the proportions even of this part are curtailed; while the knop has vanished, no proof of that discriminating utility, which is now so much vaunted; and so also the bowl for receiving the droppings of the wax is seldom, if ever, thought of, while in the place of the pricket a socket always receives the candle: so that in fact the candlestick becomes no more than a stem on a slender base-a form with no beauty and as little use. The material of altar candlesticks may be gold, silver, or silver parcelgilt, copper-gilt, latten, or brass. Besides the two candlesticks for the altar, two other standing candlesticks may be placed at a little distance in front of it, as may be seen in some of the College chapels in Oxford. The form of these is essentially the same, and they may be made for one or more tapers.

But here, before proceeding to notice the remaining vessels and ornaments for the altar, it may perhaps be not irrelevant to our present inquiry, to advert very briefly to the general lighting of churches, whether by branches or circlets of lights, termed coronas, suspended from the roof or vaulting of the church. As there are few objects at once so beautiful and so gorgeous as a corona, framed on the true principles of art, for its symbolical meaning, and its pyramidal blaze of light;-so are there few less pleasing than the fanciful and bad examples, Italian, or Arabesque, or by whatever name they may be designated, which abound now. Many of these, however, are the works of a period which we may consider already by-gone, and of a style fast on the decline. Those at Exeter cathedral may be cited as fair specimens of the class. But now the tendency is manifestly to adorn our churches with coronas of the ancient form; and we have also the modern discovery of gas; and some desirous of uniting the two have been led into strange inconsistencies. A corona is essentially of metal, and its chief characteristic is lightness. But let us take a modern corona for gas, examples of which are seen in the recently restored church of S. Mary Magdalene, Taunton. The gas must be introduced in a pipe, and so the corona is supported by a solid chain, i. e. a pipe instead of a chain. And as coronas usually have candles, the gas is lit, and the false candles through which it passes, shed abroad their lustre. Now, here is a deception, although not an intentional

one but it is plain that the use of gas is utterly incompatible with the form of the ancient corona. The propriety or disadvantage of the employment of gas in churches absolutely is another question; although against it this, with many other objections, may be urged, that the effects of the light are too concentrating; it draws all eyes involuntarily to itself, whereas the blaze of innumerable tapers is ever subordinate to the building which they illuminate; if the comparison of those with stars be allowable, the other as exceeding them by almost solar brightness, should only be employed in one compact mass; and this for a church is manifestly inappropriate. This much is clear, that if gas is to be used at all in churches, some totally different form must be devised suitable to this manner of lighting; but the deception by which seeming wax candles serve as pipes for gas, and by never diminishing tell their tale-is by no means allowable.

Returning from this digression, we have next to speak of the chalice and paten. There are four parts in the chalice, the foot, the stem, the knop, and the bowl. The first may be of various shapes, but should extend considerably beyond the bowl in diameter, -to prevent the possibility of upsetting; the stem unites the foot to the bowl, and about the middle of it, as with the candlesticks, is placed the knop, which is variously enriched with enamels, jewels, or tracery, and tabernacle-work, while the stem is frequently engraved or enamelled. The height of the stem is generally about four inches, and seldom exceeds six. The bowl varies from three to six inches diameter, and of a proportionate depth; it should have a plain rim of about an inch below, that it may be enriched with engravings, inscriptions, and enamel. Their material is usually silver, either whole or parcel-gilt, occasionally pure gold and jewelled. In very poor churches the bowl is sometimes of silver, while the rest is of gilt metal. But at the present time when the precious metals are so readily procured, and modern luxury has so generally introduced them into domestic use, it would argue great want of respect for holy things, to use inferior metals for any portion of so sacred a vessel as a chalice. That in Bishop Andrewes's chapel had, on the outside of the bowl, CHRIST with the lost Sheep on His shoulders: on the top of the cover the wise men's star, both

engraven.

We need not dwell on the absurdities of the forms employed in modern chalices; suffice it to say that the old form was completely abandoned; and, amongst other defects, was introduced the capital one, of carving the edge of the bowl outwards, which is not only at variance with all beauty, but caused continual danger of accident. Many very beautiful chalices are still preserved; two of Italian workmanship, which serve very admirably to illustrate the different stages of the art in its perfection and its decline, are figured in Shaw's Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages. The one is