beyond all semblance of their original condition. But enough are left to
give us a satisfactory idea of the labors of the fathers and of their
subject Indians. At the outset, it must be confessed that while the
fathers understood well the principles of architecture and created a
natural, spontaneous style, meeting all obstacles of time and place
which presented themselves, they showed little skill in matters of
interior decoration, possessing neither originality in design, the taste
which would have enabled them to become good copyists, nor yet the
slightest appreciation of color-harmony. In making this criticism, I do
not overlook the difficulties in the way of the missionaries, or the
insufficiency of materials at command. The priests were as much hampered
in this work as they were in that of building. But, in the one case,
they met with brilliant success; in the other they failed. The
decorations have, therefore, a distinctly pathetic quality. They show a
most earnest endeavor to beautify what to those who wrought them was the
very house of God. Here mystically dwelt the very body, blood, and
reality of the Object of Worship. Hence the desire to glorify the
dwelling-place of their God, and their own temple. The great distance in
this case between desire and performance is what makes the result
pathetic. Instead of trusting to themselves, or reverting to first
principles, as they did in architecture, the missionaries endeavored to
reproduce from memory the ornaments with which they had been familiar in
their early days in Spain. They remembered decorations in Catalonia,
Cantabria, Mallorca, Burgos, Valencia, and sought to imitate them;
having neither exactitude nor artistic qualities to fit them for their
task. No amount of kindliness can soften this decision. The results are
to be regretted; for I am satisfied that, had the fathers trusted to
themselves, or sought for simple nature-inspirations, they would have
given us decorations as admirable as their architecture. What I am
anxious to emphasize in this criticism is the principle involved.
Instead of originating or relying upon nature, they copied without
intelligence. The rude brick, adobe, or rubble work, left in the rough,
or plastered and whitewashed, would have been preferable to their
unmeaning patches of color. In the one, there would have been rugged
strength to admire; in the other there exists only pretense
to condemn.

[Illustration: THE OLD ALTAR AT THE