these great questions in
passing, that you may know where you stand; but our real business is
with ourselves: to make ourselves so secure upon firm standing ground,
in our own particular province, that when the hour arrives, it may find
in us the man. Let us therefore return again from these bright hopes to
consider those particular details of architectural fitness which are our
proper business as workers in glass.

What, then, in detail, are the rules that must guide us in placing
windows in ancient buildings? But first--_may_ we place windows in
ancient buildings at all? "No," say some; "because we have no right
to touch the past; it is 'restoration,' a word that has covered, in
the past," they say (and we must agree with them), "a mass of artistic
crime never to be expiated, and of loss never to be repaired." "Yes,"
say others, "because new churches will be older in half-an-hour--
half-an-hour older; for the world has moved, and where will you draw
the line? Also, glass has _to be renewed_, you must put in something,
or some one must."

Let each decide the question for himself; but, supposing you admit that
it is permissible, what are the proper restrictions and conditions?

You must not tell a lie, or "match" old work, joining your own on to it
as if itself were old.

Shall we work in the style of the "New art," then--"_l'art Nouveau_"?
the style of the last new poster? the art-tree, the art-bird, the
art-squirm, and the ace of spades form of ornament?

Heaven in mercy defend us and forbid it!

Canopies are venerable; thirteenth-century panels and borders are
venerable, the great traditional vestments are so, and liturgy, and
symbolism, and ceremony. These are not things of one age alone, but
belong to all time. Get, wherever possible, authority on all these
points.

Must we work in a "style," then--a "Gothic" style?

No.

What rule, then?

It is hard to formulate so as to cover all questions, but something
thus:--

Take forms, and proportions, and scale from the style of the church you
are to work in.

Add your own feeling to it from--

(1) The feeling of the day, but the best and most reverent feeling.

(2) From Nature.

(3) From (and the whole conditioned by) materials and the knowledge of
craft.

Finally, let us say that you must consider each case on its merits, and
be ready even sometimes perhaps to admit that the old white glass may be
better for a certain position than your new glass