THE SYMBOLISM OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 14, 2 August 1873, Page 12

THE SYMBOLISM OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

n^ v -it L ™-,(, (W * W ' in the Ca «">lic ' Standard.') JiEifE* Hart Milman, D. D., Dean of St. Paul's, London, in his history ot Latin Christianity, s-iys of a Gothic Cathedral, « that it can hardly De contemplated without awe or entered without devotion." This is emphatically trtfe, and the reason is not far to seek. Buildings reflect lite purposes* and minds of ihose uiho etett them. Particularly is this the case when the style is original and the creation of its builders. «ow, a Gothic Cathedral, erected, say, in the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was constructed by persons who either were inemselves deeply religious and impressed with the reality of things Unseen, or at least, lived at a time when faith was active and ardent, and when the Church universal held its proper place as the mistress, indeed, as the soul of society. A Gothic Cathedral is, nothing more n °lu?? S 'J h& ? MlOM 10 Catholi ° religion in stone. It symbolwes- and exhibits tha faith. It is a Catholicism in stone. As perfectly asUuman genius cau do, it exhibits the majesty, eternitf,. sanctity and mystery of Almighty God and the Catholic Church.- A Gothic' Cathedral is consequently the perfection of human- art, or rather of human genius. We say this unhesitatingly and care not if faome modern builder could show that it might have been more scientifically constructed. We assert that a Gothic Cathedral is a greater and more wonderful production of human genius than a mail' ateara packet., a locomotive, a telegraph, the Union Pacific Railroad, or a monster Hotel. And we would prove it in this manner. We assert that the 1-aligious or spiritual part of man, his soul, bis higher nature, is greater, more important, on a higher plane so to op&at, than his bodily needs. To express vividly a spiritual and eternal truth is nobler, is grander and requires greater genius, than to express a bodily or materia, truth. For example take oratory. The grandest orators were Ohrysostom, Bossuet and Lacordaire, because they Were so<taught by heaven that they could vividly express eternal truths in splendid language. Next to religion comes patriotism, and accordingly-' Patrick Henry, Burke, Sheridan and Webster, who spoke on national subjects, rank next. But who could fancy a splendid oration delivered on cookery or clothing P the idea is absurd. Yet eating and cooking are necessary, but as they are mere bodily requiroients they do not call forth exalted genius.

Now to provide big hotels, comfortable Pullman cars and swift steamers, is all very well, but we hold that the builders of a Gothic Cathedral were greater men than the inventors of these things, and that their work was a grander one. When a stronger enters Cologne, or York, Minster, or Seville, or Lnartres, ov Notre Danie, he feels a sense of indescribable awe provided, of course, that he is a man of cultivated feelings and relinous i ieas. liven if he is only tho former he does so. An irreligious man; a man destitute of faith, feels a sentiment of religious awe steal over himi Ihe vast heights, the lights and shadows, the clustered columns the distant altar with its solitary lights, the lofty staked glassed windows, the lew kneeling figures, the faint smell of inconse, the statues of the saints looking down from their several niches upon their little groups of kneeling votaries; the strains of solemn mubic that seem to hover in the air, all combine to produce iv him the religious sentiment. That was the design of those who constructed these noble edifices. They labored for no paltry, no selfish, no narrow, no mean end. They labored to erect a dwelling in some degree worthy of Him who, while inhabiting eternity, yet dwells with' man ;- and the success of their endeavours, a success impossible unless they had been imbued with religious feelings, proves that they were in- soioe degree inspired by Mini. * The Cathedral was vast. So'is God, so is- the Church': It was m the form of a Cross, for God was crucified on one, and as the pncier.t eccleciastical writers aay, even man standing ereot with extended arms. is one: ' The Holy Trinity, tha Blessed Virgin, the Sacraments, the -virtues and their aontrary vices, the history of the Church, the prophets, saints and angels, tho hiorarchy in its various grades, in short everything connected with the religious idea was symbolized and exhibited m the arrangements and ornaments of a- Gothic Cathedral.

THe ' New York Herald ' contrasts the sermons of Itov. Father <Sazan, in that city, with those of Henry Ward Beecher, much to tho advantage' of the former. It says :— " The Christian reader should turn from Father Cazan's discourse to Mr Beedier's, and after reading Tioth carefully, say if there is not much more of the Gospel, both in j&ftfer and £b- spirit, in the former than in' the latter."