Those statues, associated as they were with the remorseless persecution which had so long desolated the provinces, had ceased to be images.

They had grown human and hateful, so that the people arose and devoted them to indiscriminate massacre.
No doubt the iconoclastic fury is to be regretted; for such treasures can scarcely be renewed.

The age for building and decorating great cathedrals is past.

Certainly, our own age, practical and benevolent, if less poetical, should occupy itself with the present, and project itself into the future.

It should render glory to God rather by causing wealth to fertilize the lowest valleys of humanity, than by rearing gorgeous temples where paupers are to kneel.