thing would lead her to dwell too painfully upon the past. We therefore persuaded her to accompany us to London, and share our home until some definite arrangements could be made for her future life. During the time that she resided with us, she, by her own wish, accompanied us occasionally to our church, and I could not but observe that she was struck with the simplicity and solemn grandeur of our ritual and service. Many and deeply interesting were the conversations on this subject that passed between my brother and herself. While doing full justice to all that yet remains in the Roman ritual of beautiful and true, even confessing that there are points in her discipline and practice, which we might better imitate than condemn, he spared none of the errors by which she has stained the purity of her practice, and dimmed the clear light of Gospel truth; and Teresa, who listened with a meek yet sorrowing heart, set herself to learn the real faith of the Anglican Church, praying to be guided in whatever path might be the most profitable to her soul's health. She mingled little in society, seeing few, even of our quiet circle of friends, and when we spoke of any little scheme for the future, as anticipating that she would continue to make our house her home, she smiled and shook her head, giving us to understand that she had plans of her own which could not easily be set aside. She felt, as she repeatedly told us, that in this world of ours she had now no place; her one only hope of happiness was fixed far, far beyond the grave, and life henceforth could be to her, only a long preparation for Eternity. Therefore, her chief desire was to embrace some vocation, which, while it gave her the opportunity of employing her time in active works of charity, for her SAVIOUR'S sake, might above all, leave her soul undistracted, and free to commune at all times with that world unseen to which we sometimes fancied she was hastening. A convent would have met her wishes, but she had, she at length admitted, some reluctance to bind herself by vows, which pre-supposed a strict and devoted adherence to the Roman Catholic faith. This she could no longer either feel or profess, though greatly unwilling to secede openly from the Church of her fathers. There was how ever no alternative, and when, through the interest of my brother's friends, she obtained the restitution of some portion of her property, she consulted him as to the propriety and possibility of her being received into one of those Sisterhoods of Mercy, which are now happily multiplying in our Anglican Church. The occupation of tending the sick, comforting the sorrowful, and instructing the penitent, seemed more congenial to the temper of her mind than any other, and having once come to this decision, she wished to carry it at once into effect. My brother however reminded her, that she could not, as a Roman Catholic, be admitted into any Anglican sisterhood, whatever might be her feelings towards our Church. Consequently, after some time devoted to the deeper consideration of so momentous a step, she was received into our Church and immediately became one of the Sisters of Mercy, to whom her self-devotion, and piety, zeal, and love, made her a most invaluable acquisition. Early taught in the school of self-denial and suffering, she was peculiarly well fitted for a zealous performance of the duties demanded by that holy but difficult vocation. She, who had herself known deep sorrow, was well able to cheer and comfort others; she, whose heart had been wrung by the errors of him whom she loved best on earth, was best fitted to reprove, while she wept for the faults of others, and through the whole course of her young life, for young she was, when called to cease from her works of love and piety here, and rest from those labours, the memory of which was garnered up for ever in heaven, the spring of all her thoughts, the ruling principle of all her actions might have been expressed in the same words, which the saint, whose name she bore, once believed herself to have heard spoken even by her SAVIOUR'S lips. "Thinkest thou that merit consists in enjoying? No; but rather in working, in suffering, and in loving. He is most beloved of My FATHER, on whom He lays the heaviest crosses, if these sufferings are accepted, and borne with love. By what can I better show My love for thee, than by choosing for thee what I chose for Myself ?" 189 EFFIE MAY. LITTLE Effie, fair and mild, Far from hum of busy men, All amid the northern fells Stands the cot where Effie dwells. Effie hath a winsome face, Full of childhood's budding grace: Effie loves on flowers to look, Heard by guileless ears alone: Effie hath no playmates wild.- In her meek simplicity. Effie never acts deceit, Choosing aye the right and meet; Beautiful her soul of truth, Glowing with the dew of youth! Only hath she scanty ore O! though with no dream elate ROSA. CHAPTERS ON CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. No. VI. SCARCELY had the First-Pointed style reached its zenith, ere it too began to show tokens of change. Gradually it merged into that which is doubtless the most beautiful and perfect style of all, the Decorated or Middle-Pointed. There appears to have prevailed at this time a school of art both in architecture and sculpture which in gracefulness of design and beauty of execution, surpassed the works of any age either before or since. The original developement of this style may be traced to the thirteenth century—in the fourteenth it reached perfection, the magnificent Abbey Church of S. Peter, Westminster, the angel choir of Lincoln, and the nave and aisles of Dunblane Cathedral, in Scotland, may be adduced as very early and beautiful examples of it. The detached shafts, usually of Purbeck marble, which in the more important edifices of the preceding style generally clustered around the pillars, now became amalgamated into one beautifully clustered pier. The sculpture and foliage became more free and graceful, and the windows, now expanded into many lights, were filled in the head with geometrical tracery, which gradually passed into what may be termed flowing tracery, from the grace and ease with which the mullions ramified into all sorts of curvilinear forms. The greater part of York Minster belongs to this period, also the choir of Carlisle, the nave and choir of Exeter, the choir of Bristol, the central portion and Lady Chapel at Ely, the whole of Lichfield Cathedral, Merton College Chapel, Oxon, and a vast number of parochial churches, the most beautiful of which are scattered over the central and eastern portions of the island. In France also this age has handed down some peculiarly interesting edifices. In the capital may be mentioned that gem of art recently restored under the able hands of Violet-le-Duc, the Sainte Chapelle, in the Palais du Justice. This was the work of Pierre-de-Montreuil, under the auspices and at the expense of the King S. Louis. It was commenced A.D. 1240. The choir and transepts of the Cathedral Church of Notre Dame, and the greater portion of the Royal Abbey of S. Denis. In the provinces the Cathedrals of Strasburg, (begun A.D. 1277,) Narbonne, Carcassone, Bayonne, the choir and transepts of Bordeaux, built by the English, the Abbey Church of S. Benigne, (now the Cathedral,) Dijon, Chalons sur Saone, Lyons, Vienne, Beziers, &c., and lastly the noble Abbey Church of S. Ouen, Rouen. In parochial churches this style is not nearly so prevalent as in England; in the northern district these belong mostly to the succeeding age; in the central and southern provinces, Romanesque holds the large preponderance. Hitherto the styles of Church Architecture had run an even race both in England and in the northern parts of the continent of Europe, beyond mere localisms, the same age had produced the same style of architecture and even of detail on each side of the channel. The Third-Pointed style however, generated early in the fifteenth century by the adoption of the four-centred arch,2 and which formed the transit of decline from the 1 By localisms are meant the slight differences of detail and arrangement which arose from the employment of different bodies of free-masons of these we may trace an almost equal amount in the different counties of England, as between England and the continent itself. 2 The four-centred arch arose from the pointed segmental arch of the previous style, a form adopted when a low archway was required, and there was sufficient abutment to resist the lateral thrust. In this case the arch dies into the jamb at an angle; by rounding this angle we obtain the lesser curve above the capital of the four-centred arch. This is well illustrated in the gateway of Wingfield Castle, |