The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-05 00:00:00

OLTANING FR9,I THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

The several nations of the globe which have arrived at
any great degree of civilisation have each possessed reli-
gious institutions, which have been coeval with their forma-
tion and vanished with their decline. These, totally distinct
from similar institutions which followed or preceded them,
aided by the peculiar manners and customs of the pisple,
produced a series of styles of architecture which have
either entirely varied from or formed a connecting link
with flew, which have preceded them, in proportion as the
religion of the one was inspired by, or more or less removed
in its doctrines from that of the other. In each, urelii*.te-
ture has closely followed the phases which tile religion has
undergone, pure and simple an its origin—majestic, all-sib-
sorbing ut its ante—meaningless and decrepit' in its de-
cline.

Thus, in the early temples of Egypt, every ornament was
a symbol showing, by the excitant._ taste and beauty of its
execution, the earnest and loving faith of the hand that
starved it; in the more majestic temples of the Pharaohs,
'when the whole power, art, and wealth of the state were
made to accumulate upiu nue oint, they lost in beauty
what they gained in majesty. Under the Ptolemies, the
religion in Egypt lust the power which it had held under
the Pharolis; end although the cunquerore, to ingratiate
themselves with the people, undertook great works in re-
building and restoring the temples, the hand that executed
has told the tale of the want of ;that union of faith
which before had enabled them to execute with art such
gigantic undertakings. Under the Romans, the architee-
bale became a mere mechanical art; the temples were
Yager, and the stones more nicely fitted, but their painting
sad sculpture excite almost disgust.
The religion of the Greeks was a modification of that of
the Egyptians, so also was their architecture, the types of
some of its most characteristic features existing in Egypt
long before Greece had arisen from a primitive state.
The religion of the Egyptians was in its origin purely
spiritual and mystic, but in the 2our.e of time, long before
it had passed to the Greeks, from the worshipping of all
animated nature, the air, the stars, the sun, the moon,
which they represented by certain forms of men and animals
from the adoration of the thing signified they passed to that
of the object itself, and their divinities became invested with
the supposed actions and attributes of the heavenly bodies,
unmindful of the allegory which hail called them into exis-
tence. Hence the religion of the Greeks, as derived from
the Egyptraue, was purely material ; so also was their ar-
chitecture; feelingly atilt: to all the bounteous gifts of na-
ture, they embodied them in their art ; conceiving God itt
the image of man, they made men like gods.
In Greece, that flea of nature, so different from the flat
country of the Nile, induced a great modification in their
architecture; the eye, accustomed to wander over the sharp
angles and accidental curves of the vast mountains of this
favoured soil, inspired an architecture in sympathy with its
character ; in Egypt, where nature had shown her solemn
grandeur under forms more cabal, the mind of man was
enabled to expand and make up for the absence of the gran
deur in nature's works by the buildings which he had nivel
upon the soil. Nut so Greece ; there the bolder features of
nature's countenance awed man into respect fur her won-
drous charms, which, however, by his fertile genius, lie ea/
enabled to make use of, though lie could not rival them;
fur we here see the temples of their gods, which in modern
times are mule to represent in crowded cities, with equal pro.
priety, a Christian church, a theatre of pleasure, or an hospital
for sack, soaring like the eagle on the mouutain-top, which
funned their pedestal, and seeming to add a delicate finish
to the highly-wrought works of nature.
If the religion of the Egyptians in the hands of the Greeks
lost a portion of its character, with the Romans it became
almost powerless, possessing the outer forms and ceremo-
nies of worship, but not the inward faith ; the Romans
erected 0 aspics upon a Brander and more extravagant settle,
but wanting in that feeling, that exquisite taste and sym-
pathy with their mytaoitagy, which so distinguished the
works of the Greeks and Egyptians. Having attained an
almost boundless power over the earth, they set themselves
up as gods, neglecting those which had been handed down
to them by their foretatlisrs ; the real religion of the Ito-
mans, er tie which bound all ins u together moving sympa-
thetically round oue centre, was glory, conquest, luxury
hence the monuments which the ltanuaus have handed
down to us. as the true chronicle of their times, are the Co.
liseum, the baths, theatres, palaces, :end triumphall arches—
these only Can lay claim to any originality of invention.
On the ruins of paganism rote the Christian religion, an
unlike any of the preetaliue as it was superior to them, and
produced sin art equally datiuct ; and although many of the
works of architecture which were the result of this religion
were not inspired from it, and were erected in countries
where paganisan was not thoroughly effaced, and resembled
its wanks, it is accounted for by the vast remains of heathen
temples which the early Caristiaus converted to their use ;
end in the buildings afterwards era act' oa the barite soil
they could never throw aside the shackles imposed upon
them by those with which they had grown up, and in winch,
as pagans, they had worships), d ; but as Christianity spread
to other countries removed from this iutlueuee, the pagan
forms were gradually abandoned, and Christian architecture
unfolded itself in sill its glory.
This, like all other arts, has had Its hour of faith and
struagfr, its day of joy and intoxication, and time °flings:r-
ing disease mad death. The Reformation. by separating
the tie which had ever existed between religion and art,
was a deathblow to Christian architecture from which it
has never yet recovered, destroying the unity. of the ,
Christian religion, creating as many sects and divisions as
there are individual followers of Christ ;—eaula man left to
be the interpreter of its bidden mysteries, each expressed
them differently. The Christian temples failed to represent
Christian thoughts, and emblems of sacrifices from pagan
altars were made to adorn the temple of the one Gail.
The attempts which have been made of late years to re-
vive Christian art, however beautiful they have been as
copies of a bygone style, have all signally tailed, and ever
will fail, to awaken a universal sympathy: many of the
works erecting in this style will out be finished ere the
fashion which has called them into existence shall have
passed away. They may remain to illustrate the nation's
greatness and resources, her wonderful mechanical appli-
, aaces, but can reflect nothing more to posterity than the
favourite affectation of to-day.
Similar attempts to revive Elizabethan architecture have
reed the same fate, and the revived Italian style, whki
may possibly, flow being a little nearer our own times, be
destined to a longer life, must ultimately go with the rest
The universal thirst which now exists for an architecture is
'harmony with our institutions and modes of thought maid
ultimately be satisfied. It is evident that had the asselania
been wastraiuted with oar praseamt materials at comma art

facilities of construction, had they had our institutions and
complete control over the industrial prmesses, their archi-
tecture would have been very dillerent to what it was.
Why, then, should we continue to consider architecture as
a thing once discovered, and to recognise only the forms in
which it has hitherto appeared ? Architecture is progres-
sive, and must k... 10 pace with the skv..lopment of the wants,
the faculties, and sentiments of mankind.
The great industrial movement which of late years has
thrown so much of power and interest on railways and other
great national works should have aided this ; but unfortu-
nately it arrived before the artistic world was prepared to
acknowledge it. lint it may have done its work in this, by
showing more prominently the disordered state of artistic
minds. It has awakened in the public a desire for higher
results; instead of suspension bridges alternately Egyptian
or Gothic, railways covered with architectural productions
of every variety of style, front Doric termini to Moorish
tunnels, the new materials used, the new wants to be sup-
plied, should and might have suggested forma more in har-
mony with the end in view.
The religion of Mahomet, which spread mcteorlike over
the east with such astounding rapidity, rapidly produced an
art in unison with its poetic and imaginative doctrines. For-
bidden by their creed to represent the human form, the
followers of Mahomet were led to adorn their temples as
none others have been. A most elaborate system of onto-
mentation grew up, recalling, perhaps, the silken tissues
which had adorned their tents in their wandering state, whilst
their religion impressed itself ou all their works; texts from
the Koran, interwoven with every ornament, added beauty
and expressed faith. We observe, however, in the archi-
tecture of the Mahometans the same anomaly which we
have before seen in that of the Christian+. Whenever the
Mahomedan invaded and conquered Christian nations,
drove them from the soil, occupied their temples, and de-
voted them to the worship of their own God, we find that
all future buildings er,cel in the some chines have felt the
influence of those already adapted to the new worship; but
as the religion spread far and wide to new countries beyond
this influence, the Mahometans, left to the full play of their
lively and fruitful imaginations, produced and perfected the
most refined and elegant styles of architecture that has ever
yet appeared. Shorn as they are of their lower to produce
great works, they are still faithful to the art as to the reli-
gion of their ancestors, and the many wonderful specimens
of their industrial works in the Great Exhibition show them
still equal in their power of producing refitted works of art
to what they ever were.