Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-12-04
AN AMERICAN WESTMINSTER.
Archdeacon rarrar's Reasons why We
Ought to Ttnvo IL.


Archdeacon rnrrar's Reasons why We
Ought to Ttnvo IL.
Architecture, sculpture. painting,
mosalcs, ironwork, are not born in
day. America has yet ample time in
which TO develop some heaven-born
genius in these directions. But were it
once known that she contemplated the
erection of building which was to at
tam as nearly as possible TO the ideal of
her beauty and magniIicence, how in
tense a stimulus would be given to the
toll and to the gifts of every native
artist
The architecture should be of the
most magnificent proportions; the floors
of the most lustrous marbles; the
mosaics enriched with precious stones.
malachite and lapis lazuli and agate, and
cornelian, and CRYSTAL and every native
gem, like those of the most splendid
Russian cathedrals. No painting, no
sculpture should be admitted into it
which had not stood the test of time or
which did not satisfy the severest canons
of contemporary taste. l believe that
the beginning of such building the
mere fact that such building was in
contemplation, would form an epoch in
the history of American art. 1t is true
that at the best there would be in your
Valhalla. as in our Abbey. many sculp-
lures which succeeding generations
would condemn. But even these have
their value. They visibly present to the
student the history of art. They teach
hm what to initiate and what to avoid.
They reflect with unfailing and unsus-
pectng accuracy the varying emotions
and ideals of the periods by which they
were produced.
1t would be impertinent IN me to add
what every American can add far better
for himself-the names of the states
men, the heroes, the philanthropists,
the poets, the orators, the eloquent men
and fathers who begat us, who would
already claim proud place in a build
Jug devoted to the reception and
memorial of the mighty dead. All your
history would gladly crystalline round
such u nucleus. 1t would become the
eternal memorial OF all your fame. In
genuous youth would there find the
ceno,aphs of men like Raleigh and
Penn. and Governor Bradford and Miles
Standish, and the names of the Pilgrim
Fathers, and busts and statues of the
civil and military heroes of the war of
independence; of Jefferson and Otis,
and Patrick Henry and George Washing
ton. and the heroes and martyred Pres
dent of Your cvl war. Just as the
Church of st. Paul outside the walls !"
OF Rome has medallions of the long
line OF Pores downward from Saint
Peter. so yo;ir Talhalla would have pic
lures Of the leugthenng line of Presi-
denis from Wash ngton. And there
would be the sculpturcd features of your
sweet singers. BRYANT and Longfellow;
and of Your eminent thinkers, Thoreau
and Emerson, and of Your great his
torians. Washington Irving and Prescott
and Motley; and of such orators as
Henry Clay and Daniel Webster; and of
Your men of genius like Nathaniel Haw-
horne a1d Edgar Foe; ard of your
treat thno 'og,ans. Jonathan Edwards
and Chanuirg. and of your earliest
bishops like Spabury and White. And
there. when they sink to the grave, full
o: wears and fnll of honors. would be
placed n due tine the memorials OF
such writer's as Bancroft and Parkman,
and Lowell and Whittier, and Holmes.
But must stop. Perhaps l have al
ready said too much. But l have
written only by SPECIAL request and
urgent Invita- on. and l believe that
shall be pardoned for words dictated by
That profound admiration for America
which with me is not q feeling of yes.
terday. but has been expressed by me
n many public places in England fol
more than twenty years Brooklyn
| Magazine.