In painting and sculpture, the triumph of Christianity was no less conspicuous. The extravagant doctrines of Paganism, its sensual worship, its mere local and national traditions, the earthward tendency of its whole spirit, contributed much to narrow the sphere, as well as debase the conceptions, of ancient art. On the other hand, the sublime dogmas of Christianity, its pure morality, its universal sympathies, the mystical, supernatural character stamped on all its institutions, have at once spiritualized the views and immeasurably enlarged the field of the artist.

These general observations on the Christian festivals, liturgy, and art, will not, we trust, be considered an inappropriate introduction to a reviewal of the excellent work at the head of our article.

The plan of our author is, to go through the whole cycle of the ecclesiastical year, explaining the nature and object of each festival, elucidating the more important parts of the liturgy appropriated to the celebration of such festival, and citing, or referring to, the most remarkable productions of ancient and modern poetry, or describing the most celebrated works of art raised or composed in its honour.

The book is full of interest, variety, and instruction. Sometimes the author conducts the youth to whom it is addressed into the temple of the Catholic church, displaying to his astonished eyes the majesty of her worship, the beauty of her liturgy, and the import of her ceremonial; sometimes he leads him to the great temple of nature herself, revealing to him all the wonders of creative love and wisdom, explaining her mysterious symbols, and interpreting her mute but significant language. Now, he unfolds to him the depth, and sublimity, and secret connexion of the dogmas of religion; now he brings before his contemplation the glorious monuments of art, pervaded and hallowed by religion, and reflecting in turn the splendour of her holiness.

The present work has much analogy with Chateaubriand's "Génie du Christianisme;" though, from the national, as well as individual character of the two writers, there are many points of difference between them. The production of the Frenchman aims more at pointing out the external beauties and social blessings of Christianity-that of the German, its internal harmony and moral influences. The former is more eloquent and imaginative-the latter more thoughtful, at once, and more feeling. In short, one treats the ideal, the other the more practical part of his subject.

As Dr. Staudenmaier's work is divided into the four cycles of the ecclesiastical year, we shall give a rapid summary of its contents under each of those heads, citing such passages as best reveal the nature of the book, or set the author's talent in the fairest light.

In the first portion of the ecclesiastical year, from the commencement of Advent to Easter, the author, in the first place, expatiates on original sin and its consequences, describes the character of Heathenism, the old covenant, the object of the Mosaic law, the nature of the Jewish priesthood, the prophetic office, and its relations to the past and to the future. In the next place, he points out the signification and beauty of many parts of the liturgy of Advent; and, after noticing the object of the festival of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, shows the nature and object of her mission. The life and mission of the Baptist-the coming of Christ--the relation between the season and the religious commemorations of Advent-the birth of the Lord-the solemnities of Christmas, and the pious entertainments of that period,--pass next under consideration. The author then enters into an elaborate disquisition on sacred poetry, music, and painting, in relation to religion in general, and to the festivals of this cycle in particular. The feasts of St. Stephen, St. John, Holy Innocents, the Circumcision of Christ, the Epiphany, the Vocation of the Gentiles, the Flight into Egypt, the festival of the Purification, the ceremony of churching women, and the infancy of Christ, come successively under review; the author closing this section of the work with some excellent observations, wherein he demonstrates the intimate connexion between the life, ministry, and doctrine of our Lord.

After this brief analysis of the first section of the work, we shall now proceed to lay before our readers a few passages of the greatest interest or beauty, or which best illustrate the author's peculiar manner.

The following remarks on the mission of the Baptist, are, we think, elegant and ingenious :--

"The words which the Redeemer himself, in Matthew (c. xi. v. 14) pronounces on John, in reference to his calling and destination, are truly remarkable. He calls him one who is more than a prophet-he is, moreover, the Elias who is to come; nay, he speaks of him as one who is the greatest amongst those born of women; and yet he adds, the smallest in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist. And wherefore this? Anciently, the Messiah who was to come lived only as a promise in the darkness of prophecy. But John saw the prophecy already fulfilled, for he beheld with his own eyes the

Promised One. Wherefore he could point out with his fingers the Messiah walking, and say—' Behold, this is the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.' Hence is John, Elias, for in him, as a prophet, is fulfilled all that the other prophets have seen only in images. But he is, on this account, the greatest of prophets, for the other prophets could only foretell the advent of the Messiah, whereas John could indicate and announce the Messiah when he was already

come.

But the greatest of prophets is the least in the kingdom of heaven. How are we to understand this expression of our Lord?

Although John could point to the Redeemer and his kingdom, yet his whole mission forms a part of the old covenant, and not of the new. Nay, he was but the termination of the old covenant-its last historical personage. Hence this personage, while recognizing its own limits, points beyond them to him who commences the new kingdom. The last and greatest prophet, like the whole ancient covenant itself, is only there to prepare the way for the Redeemer of the world, not to become a member of the higher kingdom for which he prepares the way. Hence, he retired from the theatre of his activity before Christ consummated the work of atonement, and before the spirit which took from his own to give it us, graciously descended on the chosen members of the divine kingdom. He stood not in that intimate, holy, vital communion with Christ, which is necessary to make men members of his covenant. John is himself that which he announces. He is, to express our meaning in one word, the soul of the ancient world, which is preparing, and hath prepared, with earnest austerity, for the coming of Christ; but wherein the Lord hath not yet solemnized his entry."vol. i. pp. 175-8.

There is a deep, affecting moral in the following passage, where the spiritual state of man prior to Christ, is compared with the drooping, cheerless aspect of nature in that period of the year wherein the coming of our Lord is commemorated:

"The latter half of autumn, in which the beginning of the ecclesiastical year falls, is that period wherein the seed is cast into the earth, for the future germination, growth, and maturity of the fruit. But to receive into its womb the seed so cast, the earth must be tilled, and, as it were, made new by the edge of the ploughshare. In the same manner, before man can receive those germs of divine life, which his coming Saviour, whose gradual approach the Advent solemnizes in stillness, brings with Him into the world, he needs a total renovation of sense and heart, without which the divine seed can neither germinate, grow, nor ripen. But what the furrowing and scattering ploughshare is to the earth, the word of God, especially as it resounds from the lips of John, is to the soul of man. It is the word of penitence and of total renovation of life. And this is the word, whereof it is said, For the word of God is living and effectual,

and more piercing than any two-edged sword: and reaching unto the division of the soul and spirit, of the joints also, and the marrow: and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Neither is there any creature invisible in his sight; but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom our speech is.' (Heb. iv. 12, 13.)

"While now the penitential spirit produces such effects in the soul, those feelings of repentance, sorrow, and grief, are awakened, to which I alluded above.

"To excite these feelings, as well as that of humiliation, many things concur, partly in the aspect of Nature at this period, partly in the occurrences which are brought before our spiritual contemplation. We see the days becoming ever briefer and more sunless; and soon, in the last week of Advent, on St. Thomas's Day, dawns the shortest day of the year, preceded and followed by its two longest nights. Thus doth Nature at this time truly exhibit the poverty and the obscurity of our life, as well as the spiritual night into which sin hath plunged humanity. And this briefest of days is St. Thomas's Day, which is rightly the figure of the unbelieving and timid nature of man, when destitute of grace. And should not this image cause us deep confusion and deep humiliation? Is not our glimmering existence like to the agitated and unhappy life of that unbelieving disciple, ere his Lord came, brought him peace, and converted his scepticism into steadfast faith? for he who believeth not, abideth not. Lastly, in these dark, sunless days, nay, in the very last, cometh the day of Adam and Eve, our first progenitors, by whom sin came into the world. So are the first and the second Adam, who is Christ, brought near together; they, as it were, touch one another; and yet is each the patriarch of his own race, each is separated at an infinite distance, one from the other. But they are brought together, to signify that the first Adam rendered the second necessary, and that Christ, the Redeemer of the human race, hath the most necessary relation to all times; for He is the great centre-point of all ages, and as the future is founded on Him, so was the past in expectancy of Him."—pp. 181-4.

M. Staudenmaier eloquently describes the moral state of man, prior to the coming of Christ; his profound spiritual ignorance-his pride-his self-worship-his subjection to the iron sway of destiny-and withal, his consciousness of his primeval fall, and all the guilt and misery it involved. How well is this condition pourtrayed in the beautiful lines of Novalis, cited by our author, and which, trusting in the indulgence of our readers, we will venture to translate.

1.

"An old and stifling sense of sin
Lay heavy on the lab'ring breast;
Blindly we wandered in the night,
By shame and grief alike oppress'd:

Each work we wrought seem'd stain'd with crime,
And man to God's the deadly foe,

And if high heaven vouchsaf'd to speak,
Yet spake it but of death and woe.

II.

"The heart, exhaustless spring of life-
An evil spirit dwelt therein-
And if a light flash'd o'er our mind,
What but disquiet did we win?
An iron bond press'd down to earth
The trembling captive as he lay;
'The fear of death's avenging sword
O'erclouded hope's last ling'ring ray.

III.

66 Alone-with love-desire consum'd-
Day wore to us the brow of night;
We track'd along with burning tears
Life in its wild impetuous flight.
We found disquiet in turmoil-
We found at home a hopeless woe-
Ah! who without a friend in heaven

Did e'er endure his lot below ?"

The author describes at much length the solemnities of Christmas, and dwells on the beautiful and touching services of the Church at that holy season. The civil entertainments, too, of that period, consecrated as they are by religion, claim his attention; and he gives an extremely interesting account of the Christmas festivities of a German family circle, at which he himself once assisted. Nowhere are the amiability and true-heartiness of the German character more strikingly displayed than in the interior of a Christmas circle.

Dr. Staudenmaier now proceeds to speak of art in its connexion with religion, and opens the subject with the following beautiful passage:

"True art is at all times, howsoever and whatsoever it may produce, the exposition of the infinite in the finite. For the beautiful, which it exhibits, is only a revelation of the divine; or, as we might say, a transfiguration of the divine in the earthly. Hence true art ever exalts us from the finite world unto eternity; and from this it is evident that art must have the nearest relation to religion. For as art can find its perfection only in eternal objects, so is it directed for its representations to religion, which alone is capable of raising man from earthly to heavenly objects, from time unto eternity. For religion, as it is the living communion with God, is the happy, immortal, and glorified life itself, as far as we are able to contemplate it here below.