John Jessopp

“ Nothing, indeed, is so grand as the monuments it has raised; none of the other efforts of art have ever succeeded in producing that wonderful combination of the ponderous with the graceful, the massive with the light, which, like everything that partakes of the sublime, astonishes, amazes, and yet delights. ”

“ Morose and mysterious in India, it concealed, amid the caves of its subterranean temples, the arena of its incomprehensible pantheism. Gigantic, and no less enamoured of mystery, in Egypt, it seems anxious, by its pyramids, its obelisks, and its sphinxes, to defy alike the researches of science and the ravages of time. ”

“ This, then, is the art which we are met together now, to foster and promote; we would simply desire that posterity may long admire those noble remnants of antiquity which yet survive, the monuments of those who have written a poem upon stone, without having inscribed their names. All these men of genius, however much, apparently, strangers to the traditions of antiquity, have no less preserved sacred the worship of art, and have thereby linked ancient to modern times. ”

“ It is in this last exclusively moral influence that we recognise the characteristic feature of religious architecture. Being the faithful expression of a feeling of love and gratitude to the Divinity, it seeks, simultaneously, to reflect and to inspire the sentiment to which it owes its origin. ”

“ Sculpture half destroyed, statues mutilated by the hand of man, or yielding to the decay of time, fantastic figures in every form of poetical grotesqueness, inscriptions scarcely legible, or of which the very allusion cannot be traced;—all these present a vague and mysterious analogy to those hieroglyphics of the elder world, of which the eye curiously follows the sharp outlines without the mind being able to comprehend or guess at the hidden meaning. ”

“ Surely, then, to be able to derive such pleasure from such sources, is one of the triumphs of the human mind; and surely, even in its first elements and stages, the study of a science which produces these effects needs no apology, no justification, and no defence. Unimaginative minds may consider this love of the things of the past an exaggerated sentiment; if, however, it be a passion, it is at least an innocent one; and without injuring one human being, it has done, and is still calculated to do, much good. ”

“ This preference is excusable in those, indeed, who make industry their sole religion, but it will not hinder the ardent worshippers of art from preserving the purity of their faith. In the midst of those despised ruins, the imposing memorials of a bygone age, there is more than one lesson to be gathered. The philosopher submits his reason to the teaching of the past; the poet nourishes his imagination by his recollections; the artist studies the models which its earlier and purer traditions had created ”

“ It is as impossible to remain insensible before a magnificent cathedral, or a picture by Raffaele, or a fresco by Michael Angelo, as it is when we are contemplating, in the calm twilight, some glorious and wide-spread scene of nature. ”

“ Now, although archæology is by no means confined to the architecture and antiquities which faith has raised and sanctified, and impiety profaned and scattered, though the rough hewn sarcophagus of our Saxon ancestors is as dear to the antiquary's heart as the most elaborately-chiselled tomb of the pseudo-martyr of the middle age ”

“ Studying the history of the past is no unprofitable way of occupying the present, and awaiting the future. And thus, while the voluntary toils of associated study shall nourish among us friendships, not like the slight alliances of idle pleasure, to vanish with the hour they gladdened, but to endure through life with the pursuit that fed them ”

“ Let no one, then, exclaim against the inutility and folly of that which tends so greatly to elevate man's heart and soul! No; the sacred dust, the venerable ruin, the shattered urn, are not dumb to those who know how to inspire them with feeling and with speech. ”

“ I imagine there are few who would doubt that studies and pursuits of this kind must be a great source of improvement and of delight; but I should wish to convince you of a fact no less certain, though I think less commonly acknowledged, that an acquaintance with this science may advantageously mingle with many details of our common life; that it may lend zest to every enjoyment, and enable those who possess it to taste pleasure which those who are destitute of it can never know. ”

“ Now, I am sure you will all allow that, next to the works of God, nothing is so worthy of admiration in the world as those creations of man which have been suggested and inspired by the religious sentiment. ”

“ While, however, the altar which archæology has reared has received many worshipers, there have likewise sprung up around this new religion many sceptics. These latter, who seek in all things for the positive and the useful, will coldly ask of what importance is a moss-covered stone, a shattered column, or a headless statue. In their estimation, a bale of merchandise is preferable to a flowered capital; and all the obelisks that lie scattered on the sands of Egypt are, in their eyes, less valuable than the marble chimney-pieces which adorn their rooms. ”

“ Better versed than heretofore in archæological lore, the people of England comprehend that it is their mission to preserve the edifices as well as the faith of their forefathers; and thus they cheerfully second the efforts of authority, and the representations of science, to preserve or to restore all ancient time-honoured monuments. In this love of ancient things, whatever is mere fashion and caprice will pass away and be forgotten ”

“ Or let us descend to a lower sphere: let us not wander out of the circle of this very borough wherein we are now assembled, and it will be equally easy to show that archæology is not a mere holiday-thing, to be assumed on some special occasion, but that it may mix and blend with the affairs of every-day life, with our hours of business and our moments of leisure—not only without interfering with our occupations, but also diminishing the monotony of our toil. ”

“ But he who knew something already, and might wish to know more, of the traces of that wonderful people who fortified an island as we would a town—who constructed works whose magnificence in ruin even now astonishes us—such a traveller would find ever fresh delight in every trace and vestige of antiquity which presented itself ”

“ The motive that influences that learned body herein, I take to be this,—that they are anxious to testify to an admiring world that in all things relating to the dignity and credit of their order, they can commit themselves as confidently to the zeal and ability of the youngest and most inexperienced amongst them, as they could to the learning and discretion of the oldest and most practised of their leaders. ”

“ And then, if, from the East, we pass homeward to the West, we shall discover that, although with ourselves, even Christian architecture possesses a type and character essentially original and distinct ”

“ I mean the study in which Cuvier attained such mastery and skill—the study of the remains of extinct races of animals, and the reconstruction of their scattered bones, so as to afford, by analogy, no small probability of an accurate estimate as to their structure, their size, and even their habits of life. And this recalls to my recollection a most striking discovery of a disciple of Cuvier with reference to one of those animals, which, so far as we know, human eye had never seen, and of which, in this instance, it happens that no vestige of the substance remains ”

“ The traveller passing rapidly, with all the speed that railroads now supply, through the plains of Lancashire, may stop short when he arrives at Penrith or at Carlisle, being anxious during his leisure to explore the lakes of Cumberland on the one side, or the range of the Cheviots on the other. ”