seats he was one of the most familiar figures; and as a member of the choir committee he took a great interest in improving the vocal service — a task which his delicate ear for music well qualified him to discharge. The allusion made by Dr. Vaughan, the master of the Temple, on the Sunday after his death, was as well merited as it was appropriate, and must have gone at once to the hearts of the audience. Those who only saw the outside of Warren's character must have been little able to appreciate the serious depth of his nature and the vein of sincere piety that lay within; but we who knew and loved him well, can testify from our hearts to the truth of the reverend master's tribute to the memory of our dear old friend, with which we may be permitted to close this imperfect notice. Speaking of the deaths of Mr. Ward Hunt and Mr. Warren, Dr. Vaughan said: —
"Many things conspire to make the word to-day vocal. It is a parting day. It is a closing service. "Who knoweth what a day may bring forth?" how much more a period of thirty days, or of sixty? But our last services of this season are services of mourning. Two chief men have fallen in our Israel — to-day the dirge is our music. One of these was less to us than to the country. His funeral oration was spoken in Parliament. Long years ago he forsook law for politics; his renewed connection with us was but a compliment to the statesman. Such a connection is honorable to both parties — it dignifies the man, it strengthens the society.
"But the other lost friend was a very part of this 'house.' You know how he loved it! This church has never looked the same since he left it — left it, not knowing that it was forever, on the eve of last Christmas. Who shall replace him in that seat, where we can see him still — that grey head, that keen eye, that fixed, that rapt devotion? Some of his last thoughts were with us — he is gone where there is 'no temple.'
"He was a man of mark in his generation. The memory of my boyhood goes back to the intense interest, the curious mystery, of his first work of fiction, combining so strikingly his two educations — the training of the physician, and the training of the lawyer. Honors fell thick upon him in that brilliant seed-time; he would have been more than man if they had not — just a little — elated him. His genius was less to us than his character. The servants and officers of this house can tell how kind he was. I can tell. He leaves behind him in his house those who hallow — who almost idolize — his memory; well may they! These things are too sacred for public mention. I may but tell in one last word, how gently, how lovingly, he sank gradually to his rest, amidst thoughts and looks, all of peace, all of blessing. Two days ago it was given me to speak the last words over him in his beloved son's village churchyard, where love will still survive him, as he lies waiting for 'the great Easter'!"
The architectural activity of the French Renaissance is of the greatest moment in its civil aspect. The secular character of the revolution in thought and manners found expression in the erection of palaces and châteaux. The religious architecture of the day only reflects social changes which took their first shape in civil monuments. It is therefore to these civil monuments that we must look for illustrations of the nature and succession of the changes which go to make up the history of the movement in its relation to architecture.
The French Renaissance may be said to embrace two distinct periods. The first extends from the middle of the fifteenth century to the reign of Francis I. The second ends with the last of the Valois (Henri III., 1589). Each period has peculiar and characteristic features; features which are not only indicative of the artistic revolution which was afoot, but of the political and social change of which that revolution was a part, and which are plainly affected by the influence which the centralization of government had upon every branch of art. The king was at last king, and the court took the initiative both in politics and arts. The finest châteaux built in the sixteenth century are the châteaux of the king, or of those princes who stood nearest to his throne. The progressive alterations and developments which transformed the fortified castle of the Middle Age into the prototype of the modern palace may be traced, one after another, in each succeeding building, and the history of these alterations and developments is the history of French architecture as fashioned by the Renaissance.
During the first period, the period
