The Present Requirements Of Architecture In Order To A Successful Competition With Antiquity.*

doned for such as was more or less borrowed and wretchedly insipid in comparison . Now we ask , What was it that kept up this great architectural movement and secured so great success ? And what past advantages , or equivalents , can we regain ? We will name for consideration five things , which

we imagine mainly contributed : —1 . The demand for cathedral and abbey aud other churches of great splendour . 2 . The fascination of Gothic design . 3 . Seclusion allowing concentration of the architect's whole mind upon his work . 4 . No more being carried out under one individual than could receive unlimited

attention . 5 . Collective help ; valuable suggestions in design being accepted by the chief architect from ecclesiastics or others , including the trained body of Freemasons , and not rejected as officious ; the religious and artistic objects overriding every other interest . We venture to say it is not that our professional men are inferior in taste and skill to their

forefathers ; it is owing to a change in the system and patronage of art , that such prodigious fruits do not now appear ; and it devolves upon us to make every effort to recover as much as is practicable of the facilities and helps which we have lost . 1 . As to ecclesiastical demand—which we mention

in the first place—no doubt the feudal system , united with some conscientious feeling of duty on the part of the lords of the soil , was favourable to pecuniary supplies , which peculiarities in religious ceremonies and religious life rendered imposing edifices a matter of all-absorbing consideration ; and we do not expect , nor do we wish , for , a return of such times—as one of our poets has it , in an exquisite effusion on the ruins of Kendal Castle , —

" Times of rude faith , and ruder men , — God grant they never may come again . " But we hope to succeed without these auspices . A sense of what the houses of God ought to be in priority over the dwellings of men is all that is required , and that is reviving amongst us ; instances are

not entirely wanting , where the mansions , or superb " ceiled houses" as the lament of the prophet expresses it , are surpassed , as they should be , by tho costly character of the temple . To this quarter—the Church —it is not only right still to look , but we are compelled to do so ; for it is not sufficient , in the higher

interests of architecture , that secular public buildings and domestic structures be required ; the Church is infinitely the best sphere ; and until the erection of magnificent and gorgeous ecclesiastical edifices comes again into vogue , encouragemeut to architecture cannot recover its full proportions . We know it will be

saicf , —Having as a nation clone witli monastic establishments and gorgeous ceremonial , the scope for such grandeur is gone . Still , we demur to the inference , and we aver that it is not idle to contend for , at least , the erection of cathedrals of great magnificence . This we must insist upon , much as the contrary impression may prevail ; and we can do so on principle , as well

as in the interest of art . We recommend to be read Mr . BeresfordHope ' s "Cathedral of the Nineteenth Century . " The notion is erroneous that our Protestant ritual is so precise and simple that it forbids altogether imposing processions ; the inspired sentiment of the Hebrew Psalmist teaches better . Much less can it be said that our principles are so ultrapuritan that the " sublime and beautiful" of the

cathedral are incompatible with Anglican worship . What man having taste united with his piety ever found it to be so ? Who would not deplore the loss of those noble buildings which we possess ? Who would condemn the efforts expended on the modern Cathedral of St . Paul ? Who would not like to see the insufficient ones of Manchester and Oxford

exchanged for better ? or , with the demanded extension of the episcopate , a corresponding provision for the highest solemnities of our religion in the new dioceses ? The procession and the large gathering at an ordination , at a visitation , or confirmation , or any other great occasion , so much aided in effect by cathedral grandeur with its concomitant sublime tones of music

, are not empty pomp pandering to a pseudo-religious feeling , but legitimately impress the mind and heart that the spiritual benefit may be the more lasting . Nor , independently of this , is vacant space in the cathedral a waste , as we hear it objected . The nave as a spacious avenue is most effective for

solemnity ; the house of God naturally symbolizes heaven , the dwelling-place of the Infinite ; and is not necessarily a mere pale for a congregation The influence of immensity is felt to be not a little potent , and that even in the ordinary services . Witness the confessions of those great menMilton and Robert

, Hall , to which even their unecclesiastical spirits were constrained to give utterance . The former , referring to cathedral architecture , with the " pealing organ , " has the glowing lines , - —¦ " Dissolve me into ecstaeies ,

And Bring all heaven before mine eyes . And the latter ' remarked that " he could not enter York Minster without the sublimest and most devout imaginations pouring into his mind . " Equally fallacious is the objection , that higher claims would have their support diverted . Our ideas may seem large to

those who are not prepared for the demand we make ; and they may be greatly distant from realisation ; but it is little more than a dream of despondency , arising out of the niggard spirit in honouring our Great Creator , that at present represses noble aspirations . England ' s elder university rests content with a

provisional cathedral!—an interesting antiquity , but a priory fragment , and little better than a village church . Could we but stir up the people to it , and combine in a new one at Oxford the continental grandeur with the English superiorities—the high vault of Amiens , with the higher lantern , the spacious transept , and " the long-drawn aisle " of York , —it would produce a consciousness of national advance and universal

congratulation . Nor is there occasion for despair : individuals are found now whose offerings to church architecture amount to the hundred thousand ; and , with the rapid increase of the country's wealth , it is but reasonable to bespeak this standing acknowledgment and honour to the Giver of our substance . Such becoming employment of the highest class of

talent would go far to guarantee to architecture the culmination to be aimed at ; for edifices of transcendant magnificence are necessai'ily very many years in hand , and their erection would furnish what the art most needs ; namely , an enduring field for its highest cultivation . On the contrary , if cathedral building is to be passed off as visionary , it is equivalent to quitting in despair : the very sphere required being abandoned , antiquity will only mock the modern architect ' s