ND 5 PREFACE. IN the volume here presented to the public, an effort is made to make art subservient to the advancement of piety; to ennoble as well as to amuse the mind; and to give the love of the beautiful, which has been implanted in our natures, such a direction as may lead the senses to the worship of the Holy, and teach us to be grateful to Him who has given us such capacity for enjoyment. For no useless purpose is it that the eye delights in pleasant things: nor in vain is the ear pleased with cheerful sounds. The delicate perceptions of the Beautiful, too often perverted into a disguise for immorality and vice, are avenues through which it was intended that the truth should enter into our hearts. Whatsoever things are lovely, were designed to minister to whatsoever things are pure; and thus to raise our thoughts from earth to heaven. The press has aided the perversion to which we have alluded. The pencil of the artist, the chisel of the statuary, and the numbers of the poet, have abused their merit to cover the unworthiness of their themes; and sensuality, veiled in beauty, has corrupted youth by the treachery of art. We strive in this book to restore the Beautiful to its true ministry; to give to intellect and imagination their higher |