The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 27, 1858.

le author's views, however, we cordially
The "necessity"—or " expediency," as,
lterhaps,
a less enthusiastic writer would put it-
-Mai he speaks, is shown by the fact that
ter people of good taste cannot get articles
to please them without being made to pay
rather exorbitantly for their orders, or that mann-
arers who attempt to introduce patterns of a
better description find the wretched taste of
• customers gradually forcing them back to
production of conventional ugliness. We
, reminded of the fact that the success of' the
'reeks in ornamental work arose in a great
'nree from the fact that their good artists were
ashamed to assist in the production of "com-
.. things ;" " it was the work which was
honoured and perfected by his talents, not the
artist who was lowered by the work." To
hich we may add, that Aristotle, in his chapter
Art in the "Ethics," makes no distinction
wen fine art and what we should call mecha-
art—not recognizing apparently that total
tvorce between the beautiful and the useful
.hich has too often prevailed among ourselves.
Greek feeling for beauty was so innate
, as a matter of course, they gave everything
best appearance of which it was susceptible—
beauty was beauty to them, wherever it was
found "
:
the advantages arising from this real feeling for the
beautiful were better understood at the present day, we
should not have decorative art left to the accidental
caprices of a mere decorator, nor depend for so many
articles of use which ought to be ornamental upon the
misguided fancy of an uneducated mechanic; nor should
re have the hideous lamps, the monstrous tea-urns, or the
/thole furniture of our tables and of our rooms, which
disgrace our civilization. It is really surprising that
long the variety of lamps, tea-urns, inkstands, coffee-
, cruet stands, and so-called " ornamental clocks," we
scarcely meet with one which is tolerable in form.
talent will be rare among designers so long as few
able to judge of the effects of their own compositions,
Jr have any notion beyond " copying from the antique,"
because " it is antique," without entering into the true
feeling of the original, or understanding in what its
y consists. One therefore designs a cup or a tazza,
thinks he has produced a real Pompeian article,"
ruse he has put together a certain number of details:
totally unconscious that a mere repetition of ornament is
design, and that the whole when finished, having no
me, is utterly unmeaning. This putting together a
aber of parts to form a whole is indeed the besetting
of incapable minds, and is too often witnessed in the
helloes of architects as well as of those who make
ornamental models ; and instead of the building or other
work being conceived in the mind as a whole, of which
he details are the necessary accessories, each part is added
order to complete the design ; and as there is no keep-
• and no necessary connection between them, many a
is removed, altered, or varied without any reference to
e general composition.
The broad principle which underlies all the
'ithor's recommendations is, that all imitation
natural objects should be conventionally
treated, and that nothing like deception should
• aimed at, either in form or material.
The subjects of mixture of materials, legiti-
mate or otherwise, inconsistent combinations in
ornamental design, the treatment of porcelain by
painting, are discussed with much fulness of detail.
the vexed question of painted statuary among
Greeks, Sir J. G. Wilkinson takes the same
side as Mr. Lewes and the Crystal Palace autho-
rities, though with singular moderation he de-
cides against our attempting to imitate the prac-
tice at the present day. On the subject of
Pre-llaphaelitism the following observations are
sensible :
The eye does not see every brice in a wall, nor does it
wire the portrait of each to be presented to it in a paint-
' ; at the same time that it expects every object to have
true character ;—that an oak be distinguished from
another tree : and yet without every individual leaf being
portrayed. It is not an attempt to represent every thing
Na a facsimile that will make Pre-Raphaelitism useful " in
Al generation " It does not even accomplish what it pro-
fesses; for the reduction of size renders it impossible to
introduce every leaf in the tree, or every hair on an animal's
otek ; sor if the space permitted would it be desirable. It
will, however, confer a great benefit on painting in this
country, where greater attention to detail, as well as
careful drawing, is so much wanted ; and we already begin
to perceive some of its good effects, even in many of those
who are not of that school. When what are called "effects"
are no longer the excuse for want of drawing; when shape-
less objects enveloped in the obscurity of unmeaning
" washes " cease to be considered proofs of talent; when
the brush shall not assume too much the place of the
pencil; and each tyro shall no longer trust to clouds and
storms to escape from observation (like some of Homer's
heroes), we shall feel reason to remember with gratitude
the minuteness of the Pre-Raphaelite school.
Regarding architecture, a good deal is said which
will operate as a useful corrective to the exagge-
rated notions of Mr. Ruskin. Thus, to maintain
the claims of St. Mark's at Venice " as a speci-

" men of good architecture, is to deprive it of its
" real merits, and to do it an injustice by sub-
" jecting it to the ordeal of rules by which it
" should not be tested " ; it is good in its place,
and there only, and possesses a charm which is
neither transferable nor imitable. We are glad
also to see an opinion which, in reviewing Mr.
Scott's work on Gothic architecture, about a
year ago, we expressed respecting the unsuit-
ableness of Gothic architecture for town houses,
is supported by the authority of Sir J. G.
Wilkinson. After pointing out how the rage for
damp and seclusion in country residences, " and
" the wildness of nature up to the very walls of
" the house," has happily given way to dressed
gardens, he goes on to say :

Though the Elizabethan house is so well suited to our
climate in the country, it is by no means desirable for a
town ; and all imitations of it, as well as tiothic fronts, in
a street, are unsuitable and out of character. In towns
the Italian style is far preferable ; and provided the roof
really covers the house with projecting eaves and a rich
cornice beneath them, having no snow•catching balustrade,

no attic above the cornice formed out of a string-eourse,
no half columns, and no bare undressed windows, there is
no style better suited to a town mansion. It is the very
one adapted to a club •, and, indced, unless an architect is
capable of making a handsome building for that purpose,
he cannot be said to understand the true principles of
Italian architecture. There are some few buildings in
London which may be cited as good specimens of this
style, especially the last house on the south-east side of
Palace-gardens, and the Reform and a few other clubs ;
and the failures in some of the latter may probably be
attributable to the interference of incapable and irrespon-
sible committees.

The third part is devoted to the subject ofdressed
or ornamental gardens, on which very minute and
complete directions are given, with variations ac-
cording to situation, aspect, and other capabilities.
The work concludes with a list of all the flowers
suitable for parterres near the house, with the
seasons at which they are in bloom ; and we are
bound to add that the want of system, of which
we have complained, is atoned for to some extent
17 an index almost as copious and carefully com-
piled as that of a law-book.
Though he is occasionally dogmatic, as, perhaps,
all writers on taste must be to some extent,
yet on the whole Sir J. G. Wilkinson is a writer
whom it is impossible not to like. Of the com-
paratively level and unornamented tone of the
present work we are not disposed to complain.
We have had the subject treated in the lofty
and poetical vein in " Modern Painters" and
other similar works, and we are not indisposed to
see a little of the other side—to come out of the
dim cathedral, with its gorgeous gloom, its
intoxicating incense, and its bewildering forest
of columns, to the open landscape and the
fresh hillside. " Not too bright and good for
human nature's daily food," Sir J. G. Wilkinson
has pleased us by his gentlemanlike moderation,
his wide knowledge, his cultivated taste, and his
entire freedom from all cant and affectation.

Plain Sermons Preached to a Country Congrega-
tion. By the Rev. J. J. Blunt, 8.D., late
Margaret Professor of Divinity in the Univer-
sity of Cambridge. Second Series. London :
Murray.
IN the lecture on the Composition of Sermons
which forms part of the late Professor Blunt's
course on " The Duties of the Parish Priest," it
is remarked with great truth that the subjects for
sermons which enable the preacher to find his
way at one and the same time to both the rich
and the poor, the educated and the rude, are
historical, and, still more, biographical, incidents
in Scripture. " These, if handled by one whose
" own mind is charged with theological and
" ecclesiastical lore, may be made vehicles of the
" soundest instruction, both as to doctrine and
" duty, nay, even as to discipline and ritual.
" And whilst the preacher would perhaps interest
" neither high nor low by a direct dissertation,
" however elaborate, on a creed or a command-
" went, on Church government or Church-rates,
" he will secure the attention of both, whilst he
" conveys to them the very same lessons through
" a Moses or a Joshua, a Samuel or a Saul, a
" Hezekiah or a Josiah, a Nathaniel or a Mary."
Of these observations many of the sermons con-
tained in this " second series " furnish practical
illustration, and may serve as samples of a mode
of treatment of Holy Scripture suggested to the
writer's mind, we may legitimately infer, by his
peculiar aptitude for this line of teaching. They
will serve that purpose, indeed, in two ways : on
the one hand by exhibiting the richness of illtui-

tration that may be drawn from particular inci-
dents or individual characters portrayed in the
Sacred Volume, and on the other hand by indi-
cating the danger to which such a method of
scriptural illustration is liable of carrying moral
and mental analysis and conjecture beyond their
due limits. Thus, for example, on turning to the
sermon on Luke vii. 19, we find in it, not only a
masterly explanation of the difficulty involved in
the message sent by St. John the Baptist to
Christ, desiring to know from Himself whether
He were " lie that should come," or whether

they were to "look for another " ; but we have
brought before us, in the examination of the state
of mind which suggested that inquiry to St. John
in his captivity, a strikingly faithful delineation of
the workings of the human mind, even in regard
to things divine, whenever it attempts to handle
them in its own strength. This portraiture,
moreover, is with admirable skill made to tell

upon the practical difficulties of the Christian's
every-day life. To this extent few will be dis-
posed to refuse entire concurrence in the justness
of Professor 131unt's general observation, as to the
usefulness of sermons founded on those historical

and biographical incidents with which the records
of the Sacred Volume abound.

If, on the contrary, we were called upon to
point out in the present series a discourse illus-
trative of the danger of carrying analysis and
conjecture as to the inner workings of the mind
beyond their proper limits, we know not that we
could refer our readers to a better exemplification
of our meaning than that afforded by the dis-
course on John xi. 35, " Jesus at the grave of
Lazarus." 'What was the nature of the feelings
stirred up in the breast of the God-Man, out-
wardly manifested by the fact recorded in the
Gospel, that "Jesus wept,"—how those feelings
could find place in the mind and heart of a
Divine humanity,—how far their manifestation
was simply the result of their existence within
him, or how far it was designed to produce a
certain effect, and what that design was, or might
have been,—all these are questions of a highly
speculative character ; and while it is impossible
not to admire the depth, and even to assent to
the truth, of some of the observations founded on
that memorable expression of the Saviour's sor-
row ; while, too, it must be admitted that the
preacher has pursued his inquiry with all the
diffidence, all the reverential awe which such a
subject demands, we find it equally impossible to
divest ourselves of the apprehension that human
inquisitiveness has in this instance ventured to
set its foot where adoring angels might well fear
to tread.

We have dwelt more fully on this particular
class of sermons, on their excellences and on
their dangers, because it appears to us that they
are those which in a more especial manner exhibit
the peculiar character of the late Margaret Pro-
fessor as a preacher. But while this is the style
of teaching in which he was most felicitous, his
discourses of another character rise far above the
ordinary level of sermons, and contain much of
what is at once interesting and instructive.
Thus, again to refer to particular discourses in
illustration of our meaning, the one on Luke ix.
23, " Self-denial," and another on Phil. iii. 30,
" The Christian's conversation in heaven," are
models of a practical enforcement of the duties
and the privileges of the Christian state to which
they respectively relate ; while the four conclud-
ing sermons of the volume, "On the Work of the
Holy Spirit," attest the preacher's comprehensive
insight into the nature of the Divine dispensations.
In one respect, indeed, the whole of these discourses,
as well as those of the preceding series, possess no
small value; they show the highest theological
attainments to be not only compatible with, but
actually conducive to, the utmost plainness of
statement in the preaching of the Gospel. The
learning with which the preacher's mind was
stored runs through his compositions like a vein
of gold, in striking and most favourable contrast
with the glittering tinsel with which pulpit dis-
courses are too often overlaid with a view to
render them attractive for the popular taste. On
these grounds we cannot but rejoice, while we do
not feel the least surprised, that the reception
given to the first series of these " plain sermons,"
replete with profound spiritual truths, should
have been such as to encourage the publication of
a " second series " by those to whose guardian-
ship the late Professor's ;manuscripts arc ----
mitted.