I feel, however, that the subject will suffer no disparagement, among such partial judges as yourselves, in consequence of the inability of the essayist to do full justice to its merits; but that you will accord full indulgence to the crudities of one who admits that he does not appear among you in the attitude of a teacher speaking with authority, but rather in that of an anxious inquirer after truth sitting at the feet of a learned and eloquent Gamaliel.
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; yet, as the study has of late years been gradually, but surely, raising itself to the dignity of a science having no insignificant influence upon practical results, I may be permitted to glance at one of these, which is the most important, and seek to show the Religious Bearing of Archæology upon Architecture and Art.
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. Partaking of the grandeur of their object—stamped, so to speak, with the imprint of the Deity to whom they have been consecrated—they bear about them a certain character of sublime elevation which recommends them to universal admiration.
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,
