New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-02-28

moss OF the old pre- Reformation age and OF that
aud art from which their too exclusive heredi'
tary training had, until this time shut them out And
he has thus truly done sacred deed, In turning the
hearts of the children 10 their fathers Inst
was enough, but that is not the whole. He
has, conversely turned the hearts OF the fathers
70 the children. Tho world wide humanity OF bis poems
and, to BIO just OF all your American poets VINO naVc
studied In his schoo-has produced throughout Dfca'
Britain just reverence aud affection Tor the American
mind which will have which has had ALREADY
large social and political results. DO sure 30
that In spite OF passing Jars. our empire
will never be long unjust to yours WINE MT
I.ongtellow and Mr.. Lowell remain. not merely 'no
household barls-thougb that Is much-but couhse'oS'
comfortors trusted friends TO hundred OF thousah
gentle souls from the palace to tho par
sonage from the little village shop 10 the farmhouse Oh
the lonely down
THE ABBEY IN mvISGs SKETCH BOOK
But there is another American author vino was the de
light OF my own youth. and who should have been I'd!
teacher also for lie master Of our common tongue
and his prose graceful and felioous as Whhe IL
maner than. even poor Elias own; another American
author say. who. with that highbred reverence ioi
what Old has told you already more about "eS'nin
ster Abbey and told it better than am likely to toll H.
Need say that mean the lamrnted Washington irving
Ali that authors had always been 80 just 10 you 10
he was Just TO us-and indeed. moro than JUST ior' "
bis courtesy and genalty he saw us somewhate oed
and treated old John But TOO nuch aS fopo a"NSeS u'
to treat young and fair ladies:
BE o their faults little blind.
BE TO their virtues y,rJ tind"
But what charming book is that old Sketch BOOK.
and what charming is that on our great AooeJ'
set with such gems OF prose as these
The sun was pouring down yellow Autumnal ray
into square OF the clostors. bcannng upon bc1b
spot OF grass the center aud lighting up an ahsS %
From between the arcades the eye glanced up TO nit
of blne sky or passing cloud ana Deneu ,ne S sun'
Of tho hheyt
Or this again. describing the general effect OF Henry
the VIths uuriyacd chapel:
The very walls wrought into universal ornl-
meu 9orusted WIN iaeety anu S some
seems by the cunning labor OF the chise haEe peei
by magic aud the fretted roof achieved with the won
dorful miputeness aud airy security of cabinet
DUSTY splcndorw airy security" opithets 30 unex-
pected aud yet feictous as TO be seemingly acci-
dental Such the tokens Of that highest art whch
is-to conceal its own existence After such speech rs
that. what have 20 tell you of the great old Aboeyf
Yet there are one things dare say. which wash
nston Irving would have written differently
| had he visited Westminster, not forty years
ago. but now. / think, In the FIRST place. that
| If no had visited the great Abbey now. he
| would not have noticed that look OF dlapdation'
at which he hnts-lnd. perhaps. had right to hint
some 40 years ago Dnapidaton DIRT, and negligence
are as hateful TO nOw tho builder of the newest
house outside. We for more than generation past
have felt in with the rest OF England and with
all the nations Northern Europe that awakened rev.
orenoe for Medieval Art aud MEDIEVAL History which
is-for good and for lthe special social phenomenon
OF our times the natural and on the whole useful,
countercheck to that extreme OF revolutionary feeling
which issuesds Paris but three years ago-in utter
hatred and remuneration of tho past and destruction OF
Its monuments.
To preserve restore and il not TO copy. as sort
OF al duty, the buildings which forcathers nave
left u.s. is held TO be tho very marx or cultivation
aud good taste in Britain IL may be that we carry IL
tation. GRIPPING what originality OF genius may
exist among our craftsmen. sc1lptors, architects Bat We
AZ least confess tHcreDY tnal we cannot invent duu
create could ancestors 500 years ago. anu as long
as that il is more wise in u.s. as III any people,
10 exhaust the sgufcaton and power OF the pat ana
learn all from older schools OF art ana Thought
ere we attempt novelties OF our own, which, confess
freeJ-usualiy Issue in the ugly and the ludicrous'
A NATIONAL TRUST
Be that as 1t NAV, we of Westminster Abbey have be-
come like other Engshmen. repairers and restorer'
Had not become, the nation would have demanded
an account of us as guardians OF its national mauso-
leum the building which ilustrious Dean has 80
| we'll said
or all the characteristics OF Westminster Abbey that
which most endcars II to the nation ana gives most
force TO It's nameWhch has, more than anything else
made 1t the home OF the people of England. and tho
venera;od fabric of the English Church-is not so
nupb lis glory as the seat OF COronatiOns or AZ the
sepucher of the kings; not so much its school or
n s @s 1Sc fact that It is the rosingace
OF famous Englishmen from every rank and
CahedraI and ST. Denys both in one, il the
Pantheon was intended TO he to France what the Val
tins which inspired the saying of Nelson, "Vctory
Westminster Abbeyw 1t Is THIS which has ertwned
IL with 40 many eloquent passages OF Macauay
II is this which gives point to the illusions
OF recent Nonconformis statesmen least inclined to
draw illustrations from ecclesiastical buildings. Ii Is
this which gives most promise OF vitality 10 ihe wh0ie
institution Kings are no longer buried within ITS walls
even the spendOr Of pageants has ceased 10 attract
the desire to DO buried In Westminster Abbey is as
This sprang in the first instance. natural o.hoot
from the cOronatons and interments OF the kings Had
sa been buried far away IN some secluded spot or had
the English nation stood aoot from the English mon,
chapes built by Henry the Third and Henry the seventh
might have stood alone IN their glory No meaner dust
| need ever have mingled with the dust OF Plan
tageuets Tu1Ors Siuarts Guephs But 1t has been the
peculiar privilege OF the Kings of England that neither
people AS the Council Of the nation and the courts OF
law have pressed into the palace OF Westminster and
engrded the very throne itself so the ashes OF the
great citizens Of England have pressed into the Sepucher
Of the Kings and surrounded them as with guard OF
honor after their death We sometimes inclined bit
tery contrast the placid dignity OF our recruitment
kings with chatham gesuouing IRON sv hoItnrn
leaning on his column in Poets Corner, Wolfe oxpir
ing BY the Chapel OF st. John. But in fact they areln
their different ways. keeping guard over the shrine OF
our monarchs and our laws and their very inc0ngruy
and variety become symbols Of that harmonious diver
sty in unity which peryades our whole commonwealth
Honored by such trust we who serve God daily In
the great Abbey not unmndful OF the duty which
lies on US preserve and TO restore to tho best of our
mower the general fabric and to call on Government.
and on private persons to preserve and restore those
monuments for which they, not we, are responsible.
stranger will not often enter our Abbey
without finding. somewhere or other among
mosaic, marble. bronze or "soried window richly
Digit and the very coisters. which to Washington
IryInRs eve "dscolored with damp, crum.
bling with age and crusted with coat OF hoary moss,
are being repaired till that rich tracery OF the archos
and that eay beauty OF the which adOrn the key
stoues'of which tells-shal be sharp and bright
as they first, 900 years ago. .
one sentiment. again, which was called up In the