manism from the fruits of mis-
education. One great reason why Romanism has been suffered to drag
on its existence is, we humbly think, that it might force us at last
to say this: We have been long learning the lesson; till we have
learnt it thoroughly Romanism will exist, and we shall never be safe
from its allurements.

These thoughts may help to explain our opening sentences, as well as
the extreme pleasure with which we hail the appearance of Mrs.
Jameson's work.

The authoress has been struck, during her examination of the works of
Christian artists, with the extreme ignorance which prevails in
England on the subjects which they portray.

We have had (she says, in an introduction, every word of which we
recommend as replete with the truest Christian philosophy)--

Inquiries into the Principles of Taste, treatises on the Sublime and
Beautiful, Anecdotes of Painting, and we abound in antiquarian essays
on disputed pictures and mutilated statues; but up to a late period
any inquiry into the true spirit and significance of works of art, as
connected with the history of religion and civilisation, would have
appeared ridiculous or, perhaps, dangerous. We should have had
another cry of "No Popery!" and Acts of Parliament prohibiting the
importation of saints and Madonnas.--P. xxi.

And what should we have gained by it, but more ignorance of the
excuses for Popery, and, therefore, of its real dangers? If
Protestantism be the truth, knowledge of whatsoever kind can only
further it. We have found it so in the case of classical literature.
Why should we strain at a gnat and swallow a camel? Our boys have
not taken to worshipping Jupiter and Juno by reading about them. We
never feared that they would. We knew that we should not make them
pagans by teaching them justly to admire the poetry, the philosophy,
the personal virtues of pagans. And, in fact, the few who since the
revival of letters have deserted Christianity for what they called
philosophic heathenism, have in almost every case sympathised, not
with the excellences, but with the worst vices of the Greek and
Roman. They have been men like Leo X. or the Medici, who, ready to
be profligates under any religion, found in heathenism only an excuse
for their darling sins. The same will be the fruits of a real
understanding of the medieval religion. It will only endanger those
who carried already the danger in themselves, and would have fallen
into some