On Some Peculiar Features In The Ecclesiastical Sculptured Decorations Op The Middle Ages.

diately after the Crusades , the foreign ornaments were figures borrowed from the East , and probably had no meaning . Tlie sculptured decorations after the Crusades had not , however , failed to attract the attention of historical writers as well as of ai * cha ? ologists . GUIZOT , HALLAM , DE . AENOLD , DE . VEEICOUEaud othersas also ME . PUGINhad remarked

, , , this divergence from the original ancl simple ornamentation of the pure . Gothic . The lecturer observed that ifc often happened that peculiarities which escaped the notice of the professional student struck the minds of writers of imagination , and he instanced a phrase in the " Notre Dame" of M . VICTOE HUGO ,

who iu the descrip tion in thafc novel of the sculptured decorations of the celebrated cathedral in the Isle de k Cite , spoke of them as Charivari en pierre —burlesque in stone . The lecturer affirmed that it had a meaning . This was the text of the theory which he ventured to submit to an accomplished

audience . The idea had also been caught up by DUMAS , who , in his novel , so well known , of the "Memoirs of a Physician , " had adopted the symbolical letters L . P . C . ( Zilia pedibzis calces ) as the watchword or sign of the secret society which was labouring to bring on the revolution in Prance , and

which the popular writer referred to had , with so skilful a hand , developed in the hero of his novel , being an embodiment of the well-known impostor , the celebrated Count Cagliostro . The employment of secret signs as a means of the ¦ interchange of ideas , known only to the initiated , was illustrated by a reference to the Inferno of DANTE , as would be remembered by the Italian reader—those

initial Roman capitals having no reference to the verses in whieh they found a place , and which had puzzled all the commentators . The lecturer next contended that these letters were the secret conventional signs between the anti-Papal party in Italy , and stated that he had received a letter from a distinguished Italianwith whom he had opened

, a communication on the subject , in which that gentleman said thafc if the true significance of the letters referred to could be ascertained , such a discovery would be , indeed , the JRosetta stone , as far as this theory was concerned . It was to this curious and interesting subject of study that his attention was at

the present moment directed . He scarcely indulged iu the hope that his leisure would permit him so deeply to prosecute the investigation as to cherish . the ambitious-idea of becoming the CHAMPOLLION of the sculpture of the Middle Ages ; but as by the happy accident of the discovery of a Greek translation

of the Rosetta stone , a key was obtained to the interpretation of the hieroglyphs , so he had no reason to doubt that the usual rewards whieh waited on persevering study would recompense the anxiety ancl research which this subject ; had provoked in his mind . The lecturer said that he had opened an extensive

correspondence both at home and abroad , with a view ¦ of obtaining the opinions of those who he considered were most competent to throw a light upon this confessedly obscure subject ; but he regretted to say that up to the present time the fruit did not realize the promise . He believed that the only complete solution of the problem would be obtained through the cooperation of the Photographic Societ y , which had an ¦ extensive aud wide-spread correspondence in all the

countries of Europe . By such an agency it would be perfectly practicable and easy to obtain photographs of all the freizes and sculptured decorations of the period to which he referred , in which there were constantly recurring symbols in discord with the religious sentiment . By a careful collation of these examplesan

alpha-, bet , so to speak , might be constructed ; and careful study , aud a constant cultivation of the leading idea which he had ventured to develop , would , the lecturer believed , elucidate a most interesting branch of historical study . Without such co-operation it would be the labour of a life to collect these illustrations ; but

the Photographic Society had the means , at no great trouble , of bringing all the examples upon the table of the student , so that comparisons would be easy , and the mind undisturbed for entering into this very interesting investigation . To the rays of light we were indebted for the

development of all that was beautiful in nature , and art had received a marvellous expansion by the chemical discoveries of Daguerre , Niepce , and our own Wedgwood ; and the lecturer hoped that , if the Photographic Society would but lend their aid in the development of the theory which he had expounded ,

they should be able at no distant date to read this HANDWEITING os THE WALL !—to roll away , as it were , the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre in which the irrepressible but persecuted aspiration for civil aud religious liberty iu the Middle Ages has so long been lain buried an interpretation . Mr . Smith then proceeded to cite numerous examples of bizarre ancl eccentric sculpture , as well as

similar illustrations m wood-carving , many of which were to be found in this country , particularly in the prebendal stalls of old cathedrals , as at Ripon and Beverley , ancl even at Manchester , at which latter p lace there is a wood-carving ( which was first mentioned by Mr . Cunningham iu one of his art works ) , being a satire on one ofthe holy offices of the Church

—priests baptizing a monkey . At Ripon and at Beverley , one carving on the prebendal chair represents a sacred , subject treated in a becoming and religious spirit , jvhilst on the other side a burlesque and ridiculous satire appears . Monkeys and indecent sculptures are constantly found in this country ; but

they were not so frequent as in foreign countries ; and the reason would be seen upon slight reflection . In England the body of Masons have never made themselves conspicuous by any violent jiolifcical demonstrations ; but on the Continent they always bore a political characterand were mixed from the earliest

, times with all political movements . The Masons , or Freemasons , that is the established guilds of Freemasons of the Middle Ages were lay brothers of the ecclesiastical institutions , in connection with which they were employed ; and it is not disputed that the sculptured decorations of ecclesiastical edifices were

left to the capricious taste of these art workers . The theory of the lecturer was that the Freemasons of the Middle Ages , constituting as they did an important section of the liberal or advance party of politicians , took advantage of the liberty which was allowed them of working out their own designs in stone , and made the sacred buildings , which were the centres of the largest assemblages of local population in the Middle Ages , the means of disseminating their