may assume, at least with more certainty than any consecrated
ground, to be one of His dwelling-places. Again, in every mountain side,
and cliff of rude sea shore, He has heaped stones one upon another of
greater magnitude than those of Chartres Cathedral, and sculptured them
with floral ornament,--surely not less sacred because living?

64. Must it not then be only because we love our own work better than
His, that we respect the lucent glass, but not the lucent clouds; that
we weave embroidered robes with ingenious fingers, and make bright the
gilded vaults we have beautifully ordained--while yet we have not
considered the heavens, the work of His fingers, nor the stars of the
strange vault which He has ordained? And do we dream that by carving
fonts and lifting pillars in His honour, who cuts the way of the rivers
among the rocks, and at whose reproof the pillars of the earth are
astonished, we shall obtain pardon for the dishonour done to the hills
and streams by which He has appointed our dwelling-place;--for the
infection of their sweet air with poison;--for the burning up of their
tender grass and flowers with fire, and for spreading such a shame of
mixed luxury and misery over our native land, as if we laboured only
that, at least here in England, we might be able to give the lie to the
song, whether of the Cherubim above, or Church beneath--"Holy, holy,
Lord God of all creatures; Heaven--_and Earth_--are full of Thy glory"?

65. And how much more there is that I long to say to you; and how much,
I hope, that you would like to answer to me, or to question me of! But I
can say no more to-day. We are not, I trust, at the end of our talks or
thoughts together; but, if it were so, and I never spoke to you more,
this that I have said to you I should have been glad to have been
permitted to say; and this, farther, which is the sum of it,--That we
may have splendour of art again, and with that, we may truly praise and
honour our Maker, and with that set forth the beauty and holiness of all
that He has made: but only after we have striven with our whole hearts
first to sanctify the temple of the body and spirit of every child that
has no roof to cover its head from the cold, and no walls to guard its
soul from corruption, in this our English land.

One word more.

What I have suggested hitherto, respecting the relations of Art to
Religion, you must receive throughout as merely motive of thought;
though you must