Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/818

 660 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [April, The furnace, thus closed, is to be heated, with a few lighted coals, at the entrance of the door onl} 7, and not within. After having been in this state for an hour and a-half, or two hours, the fire must be pushed a little further forward, and then it is to be left for another full hour, at the end of which the fire is to be suf- fered to enter the pan by degrees When it has been thus for about two hours, it must be increased by little and little, and at the end of two hours it is to be further augmented, by filling the furnace gradually with good charcoal from young wood, so that the flame may go out at the four holes of the four corners, and at that which ought also to be in the middle. This is called the chimnej' ; and the fire ought to be very brisk and ardent for the space of three or four hours. During this time, and to the end, some of the proof or trial pieces, which are in the small apertures of the furnace and of the pan, should be drawn out, to see whether the colors are melted, and if the yellow is produced. When the colors arc almost produced, some very dry wood ought to be put into the furnace, but cut into small pieces, in order thacthey may go entirely in at that place. For, to do the work well, the door of the furnace ought to be shut during the whole of the baking, except at the beginning, and when the fire is yet at the entrance. The fire of wood, which is lighted towards the end, ought to cover the whole of the pan in which is the work, till it is perceived that the whole is baked, which usually happens after the fire has been in it for about ten or twelve hours, or eight or ten, if the hottest degree of fire has been given to it at first. But this is not so good a method, because by these means the whole is often lost, by burning the colors and breaking the pieces. Caution must be used when the bars of iron become cherry-colored or spark- ling, for that shows that the baking is advancing, and requires of the operator both attention and care. Thus ends Felibien, upon this subject. His directions, now-a-days, doubtless, are antiquated, as his style ; but they were good, for those times, as that, nn- questionably, was good work-day prose. But there is another aspect to this ques- tion, and that is the romantic and the poetic. Through no other medium, than stained-glass, can the reader obtain any thing like an adequate conception of the warmth and brilliancy of the imagi- nation, which conceived the story known to almost every child, in the civilized world, as " Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," and to the adult reader of E. W. Lane's magnificent translation of "The Thousand and One Nights," as " Allah-ed-Deen. We of America, simply staj'ing at home, but faintly appreciate the sug- gestiveness of these large jeweled win- dows of the ages that were. Their rays have fallen upon the eyes of the poets and are reflected from their souls throughout the later literature. Of all the bards, John Keats, in his " Eve of St. Agnes," best suits our in- stant need. 'A casement high and triple-arched there was, All garlanded with carven imageries Of fruits, and flowers, and bunches of knot grass; And diamonded with panes of quaint device, Innumerable, of stains and splendid dyes, As are the tiger-moth's deep-damasked wiugs; And, in the midst, 'mong thousand heraldries, And twilight saiDts and dim enblazonings, A shielded scutcheon blushed with blood of queens and kings. 'Full on this casement shone the wintry moon, And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast, As down she knelt, for Heaven's grace and boon ; Rose bloom fell on her hands, together pressed, And on her silver cross soft amethyst, And on her hair a glory, like a saint. She seemed a splendid angel, newly dressed, Save wings, for heaven:— Porphyro grew faint- She knelt, so pure a thing, so free from mortal taint."