ect to his subject, thinking how to do his work well,
as a wise master-graver, and how to receive his just reward of fame. But
he rose into the true sublime in the head of Adam, and in the profound
truthfulness of every creature that fills the forest. So again in that
magnificent coat of arms, with the lady and the satyr, as he cast the
fluttering drapery hither and thither around the helmet, and wove the
delicate crown upon the woman's forehead, he was in a kind of play; but
there is none in the dreadful skull upon the shield. And in the "Knight
and Death," and in the dragons of the illustrations to the Apocalypse,
there is neither play nor apathy; but their grotesque is of the ghastly
kind which best illustrates the nature of death and sin. And this leads
us to the consideration of the second state of mind out of which the
noble grotesque is developed; that is to say, the temper of mockery.

Sec. LII. (B). Mockery, or Satire. In the former part of this chapter,
when I spoke of the kinds of art which were produced in the recreation of
the lower orders, I only spoke of forms of ornament, not of the expression
of satire or humor. But it seems probable, that nothing is so refreshing
to the vulgar mind as some exercise of this faculty, more especially on
the failings of their superiors; and that, wherever the lower orders are
allowed to express themselves freely, we shall find humor, more or less
caustic, becoming a principal feature in their work. The classical and
Renaissance manufacturers of modern times having silenced the
independent language of the operative, his humor and satire pass away in
the word-wit which has of late become the especial study of the group of
authors headed by Charles Dickens; all this power was formerly thrown
into noble art, and became permanently expressed in the sculptures of
the cathedral. It was never thought that there was anything discordant
or improper in such a position: for the builders evidently felt very
deeply a truth of which, in modern times, we are less cognizant; that
folly and sin are, to a certain extent, synonymous, and that it would be
well for mankind in general, if all could be made to feel that
wickedness is as contemptible as it is hateful. So that the vices were
permitted to be represented under the most ridiculous forms, and all the
coarsest wit of the workman to be exhausted in completing the
degradation of the creatures supposed to be subjected to them.

Sec. LIII.