The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-01-31

BpA6nQ0f, ana makes t06 uD0cta1nAbie ana
dim worth the longest toll and the hardest
battle that the short span of human life
can compass
In those carly ages, when the heather
idols were tottering on their thrones, and
the voice Of Pan had died out in mighty
wall at tho sound of feeble infants cry
in those dawning Christian days there was
felt the need of mental food of pourish-
ing and elevating kind for the masses.
Heretofore they had been kept occupied
by public games, periodical saturnalian re-
yels, gladiatorial combats, and other
heather denominations, in order to allow
the philosopher to pursue his subtle theo-
ries in quiet, and the wheels Of government
to run smoothly on. AS years and num-
beers, however, increased the Christian fold
and the first fervor began to abate under
the influence of human passions and the
need of life's varieties, it became evident
that some food was necessary to meet the
and thoughts qfsthe philosophers and theo-
logians were too deeply engrossed with the
abstruse problems of the day-the esoteric
and exoteric-to give other time beyond
that of the SOULS immediate requirements
to the ignorant. Hence it was, that, as
human blood was poured out like water, In
libations to the true God, when beauty and
innocence, rank and lowliness, wealth and
poverty, found . common centre wherein
to pray and suffer-hence it was, that the
religious, poetic heart Of the people ideal
lied and beatified these deeds Of heroic
sanctity and the church, while striving to
fostered a taste which she saw, in her
mighty wisdom, would be productive Of
elevating thought and cumulative example,
sAnd il Is a mistake" says Mrs. Jameson,
"to suppose that these legends had their
sole origin in the brains of dreaming
monks. The widest Of them had some
hno <,f TINT Tn roof m
which they gradually assumed were but
the necessary results of the age which pro-
duced them. They became the intense
expression of that inner life which revolt
ted against the desolation and emptiness of
the outward existence of those crushed
aloud for rest, and refuge, and solace, and
could nowhere find them" Mrs. Jameson
discIaims any idea Of treating these le-
geRds save in their poetic and artistic as
pect. But as religion is the root from
whence all have their source, 80 it is insen-
work. And how could she do otherwise,
Protestant though she was For the
great trunk, the massive column, around
which all these delicate fbres of poesy
cling, is religion. Without such support,
they would fall and be trailed in the dust,
and long, long ere this, their ephemeral
life would have been crushed out, as were
the oracular voices of the marble code.
This literature, then, "became one in
which peace was represented as better than
war, and sufferance more dignifed than
resistance which exhibited poverty and
toll as honorable, and charity as the first of
virtues which held up to imitation and
emulation self-sacrifce in the cause of
good, and contempt of death for conscience
sake-a literature ia which the tenderness,
the chastity, the heroism of woman, played
a conspicuous part (; which distinctly pro-
ested against slavery, against violence,
which refreshed the fevered and darkened
and truth, revealed bright glimpses of
better land, where the wicked cease
from troubling, and brought down the
angels of God with shining wings, and
bearing crowns of glory, to do battle with
the demons of darkness, to catch the feet
ing soul of the triumphant martyr, and
carry it at once into paradise Of eternal
biessedness and peace" dfrs. Jamcson's
Legendary Art].
Under the influence, then, Of these new
inspirations, art likewise revived, and
the brush aud the chisel lent the aid of
their immortal touch to give force and per-
petuity to these creations; and birds, and
flowers, and the elements were introduced
as types or allegories of the subjects thus
interpreted. Each one possessed signifi-
cauca aud symbolism that united the soul
10 LILO CbCLuhk SOuLCC Va SoO00 ShOo1 obN
kept alive in the common heart those prin-
ciples which the people could admire if
not emulate. The rapidity which artists
multiplied at this period belongs to the
marvelous.> God needed africans for his
work. and truly the old masters seemed,
Judging from their deeds and spirit, to
have risen, like Adam, from the clay
moulding of the almighty hand. Possessed
by q sense of the lofty nature of their
calling, they not only strove for perfection
in detail, but also for religious spirit,
which should so inspire the work as to
move every heart to piety, and embody for
instruction the full force OF the solemn
truths therein portrayed. They emerged
from the impure Influences of the old re-
ligion and literature, like the chrysalis, into
the golden-hued glory that shone in the
lives of ancient patriarchs and pro-
phets in the auroral beams that hung like
sea-foam over the angels as they walked or
talked as Gods messengers on earth, until,
bathed in glory borrowed from the very