remained but the memory, and
of Sculpture, some broken stones, yet smothered in the ruins of temples
and cities the rules which gave art its science were lost; the
knowledge of colors was passed away, and that high spirit which filled
Italy and Greece with shapes and sentiments allied to heaven, had
expired. In their own good time, Painting and Sculpture arose from the
ruins in which they had been overwhelmed, but their looks were altered;
their air was saddened; their voice was low, though it was, as it had
been in Greece, holy, and it called men to the contemplation of works of
a rude grace, and a but dawning beauty. These 'sisters-twin' came at
first with pale looks and trembling steps, and with none of the
confidence which a certainty of pleasing bestows: they came too with few
of the charms of the heathen about them: of the scientific unity of
proportion, of the modest ease, the graceful simplicity, or the almost
severe and always divine composure of Greece, they had little or none.
But they came, nevertheless, with an original air and character all
their own; they spoke of the presence of a loveliness and sentiment
derived from a nobler source than pagan inspiration; they spoke of Jesus
Christ and his sublime lessons of peace, and charity, and belief, with
which he had preached down the altars and temples of the heathen, and
rebuked their lying gods into eternal silence.

"Though Sculpture and Painting arose early in Italy, and arose with the
mantle of the Christian religion about them, it was centuries before
they were able to put on their full lustre and beauty. For this,
various causes may be assigned. 1. The nations, or rather wild hordes,
who ruled where consuls and emperors once reigned, ruled but for a
little while, or were continually employed in expeditions of bloodshed
and war. 2. The armed feet of the barbarians had trodden into dust all
of art that was elegant or beautiful:--they lighted their camp-fires
with the verses of Euripides or Virgil; they covered their tents with
the paintings of Protogenes and Apelles, and they repaired the breaches
in the walls of a besieged city, with the statues of Phidias and
Praxiteles;--the desires of these barbarians were all barbarous. 3.
Painting and Sculpture had to begin their labors anew; all rules were
lost; all examples, particularly of the former, destroyed: men unable,
therefore, to drink at the fountains of Greece, did not think, for
centuries, of striking t