Page:Duffy's Irish Catholic Magazine April 1847 p. 79.png



1847]

t have been p of the middle ages. Construe- tion was then no sham. It was real and not apparent. ‘The ancient artist was not ashamed of his contrivances y of his work. “He bu r Gol, not form: for the church, not for private interest ; for religion, not for fame ; for endurance, not by contract ; for devotion, not in the spirit of economy ; pro salute anime, non procrumena?* “He would have disdained to give affected elegance to his bold and low massive walls, his stately roof, and his fearless irregularity of buttress, windows, and gable; much would he have used cast iron props for piers, that he might have y to spend in making a fine street cleva-

ith him there was no affected mystery, hypocrisy. All was real, genuine, and natural. “Was aroof (0 be of stone, it was groined, and the lateral pressures of the mass boldly resisted by flying but- tresses. Was it to be of wood, there was no plastered ceiling to imitate a better materi “ But naked rafters intricately crossed Like leafless underboughs ; mid some thick grove

All withered by the depth of shade above” honestly declared their oftice, and ps peculiarly their own, which,

be equalled by any counterfeit w ‘The old men appear to have had a horror of all aesthetical hypocrisy. We never find in any of the old churches an inferior material treated in such a manner th: might be mistaken for a superior, Each material received a construction and decorative treat- ment snitzble to its own nature. Stone, wood, metal, s, cach had its particular use and application, vas adapted so as to imitate the other jeties of the preparation of clays had pecu- liar, naturally appropriate, and beautiful characte istics, such as ornamental bricks and encaustie ti but we never find the introduction of that materi rhich has been a main instrument in the debasement of modern architecture—stucco. The bare surface of the inside of the walls, when they consisted of rubble

da beauty rewl, could not

tev

and The

the works of the middle ages, there was a reality and

istinctness in the application of the constructive means i quite visible and unmis- 3, the greatest efforts appear to be wasted in the concealment of the real construc- tion, and in constructing showy ornaments for mere effect.

With regard to that clement of fitness called pro- Portion, if we admit with Doctor Alisont (and we think his demonstration on that head clear and conelu- Sive,) “that the emotion of pleasure which proportion affords has no resemblance to any pleasure of sensa- tion—but that it resembles that feeling of satisfaction which we have in other enses, where means are properly applied to their ends ? and, “tht every form which is susceptible of proportion may be considered in either one or other of the following lights :—Ist, In the light of its whole or general relation to the end designed, or when it is considered as a whole without any distine- tion of parts; or 2nd, In the light of its relation to the Several parts,” we think that the illustrations given of Construction and arrangement will show, that, in Dr. Alison’s sense of the term proportion, which is the
 * F. A. Paley’s Manual of Gothic Architecture, p. 227.

Reclesiologist, Vol. 2. p. 11

Rasay on the nature and principles of taste.

G SIMNEL AND THE PALESMEN. 79

only satisfactory definition of the idea we have yet heard, Christian architecture wd this element of beauty in a high degree. It is absurd to suppose that there is an abstract beauty of proportion, and that that proportion is governed by fixed and definite rules. If such were the case we should find all the examples of the several orders of the classic styles exactly corres ponding in the relations of their several parts to each

the reverse is the fact, and we find no inciding in all respects. The truth is, the pleasurable emotions with which we are affected by what has been called proportion, is the satisfaction that we feel from the consciousness that the means employed are adequate to their en

Bing Simncl and the Palesmen,

A STORY OF IRELAND 1%

‘THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

[Continued from paye 53.] Cuarter VI—Mar Day. Five days had passed over sinee the haw!

ing pi of the Lord Deputy had been in Fein-iskhe. E day bro i

ht additional guests to Thomas-court, and saw some of the earl’s adherents set out on sto all the shrines in the kingdom. Among mer was Sir James Fleming, heir of the Baron of Slane, the cousin and accepted suitor of Alison Fitzgerald. Barnwall, engrossed in the ardour of

love-chase, w: areely conscious that one-half

Morogh M: “Brother!” he said to him, “we are to have no sevrets from one another. I am a Lancastrian and an Ormondist. It is thought that the wars of the roses soon to be renewed. Ihave been warned to quit court and city, and in ten days to present myself in Kilkenny. Five of these ten are gone ; to-morrow, or the next, I must depart. Will you bear me com- pany ?”

«Dear friend,” said Sir Morrogh, earth will I go with you but into the Mae-Davids and Mac-Morrogh s have, for ages back, waged un endless war with the Ormonds and their race. The Nore is to me and mine another Styx; beyond it lies our Hades. But wherefore do you rank yourself under the banner of the Butlers?”.

«J inheritea this fealty from my father, who had it from his father, and he from his. It is not for me to choose my own colours. Gratitude to Laneaster for favours, and to Ormond for alliance, in times past, I was born heir to, as well as to Drimnagh and Terenure. It is a hard task, oh, my friend, to part from you; harder still, may L not say, to leave behind, half won and half known, the fairest maid that was ever nursed in Leinster. Yet, must I go, or the motto of our house will become but a lying seroll, proclaiming that

vithin, which inhabits not there.”

i The way is long and dangerous,” said the Wes- ford knight, “yet think not I would dissuade you from it. ‘The hard way of honour should be as easy to the truc knight as the rocky hill-path to the callous heels of goatherds. If you must needs go, let us least spend one other day together, and then invot® your guardian saint, and gird your sword,

“anywhere on

God’s name depart upon your way.”

�