en hundred years."

The author proceeds to point out the two grand directions in which all
original art branches off. It serves either religion or history. The
first productions of art were idols and monuments. Palaces, theatres,
paintings, are the work of progressive civilisation. Christian art has
one principal feature in common with pagan art,--its origin. They are
alike the offspring of religion. They are also similar in their
progress; they acquired an inclination towards history, and both have at
last taken a decided _realistic_ direction. But the vast difference
between Christian and antique art is no less palpable. The art of
antiquity was far more deeply imbued with the principle of nationality
than the former. Nations were isolated; each had its proper gods and its
peculiar history. The diversity of religion and of political
institutions engendered a difference of feeling. This civilised world of
ours, on the other hand, has a community of feeling, in as much as it
has one religion common to all. The Celtic, Sclavonian, and German
nations exhibit far greater diversities of origin and climate than the
inhabitants of Persia and India in ancient times; yet the artistic
productions of the former are more alike. Their religion furnishes one
point at which all meet, and in respect of which they are inseparable.
The prevalence of the ecclesiastical element in modern art, is, however,
liable to one great objection. For many years it served to exclude
historical art, which even in our own time has not attained so high a
perfection. It is true that Christianity makes amends in some degree for
the want of this historical development. A total absence of historical
facts is the great characteristic of the religions of antiquity. The Son
of David, on the contrary, is in himself the greatest of historical
facts. The Apostles are no mythical personages. The great men of Judaic
history, the family of our Saviour, and the people with whom he
conversed, all form one large group of historical personages, and
religion and history, formerly separated, are _here_ united. Christ on
the cross is an object of touching adoration, but he is also the
monument of the greatest event in the history of the world. But that
this is no national history is undeniable. Offspring of a foreign soil,
it had no connexion with the state.

The exclusively ecclesiastical character of early Christian art, is
another grand feature which at once destroys a