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176 NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. painting in brilliancy, but must materially suffer by the contrast. The colours of a translucent painting will always overpower those of a picture which only reflects light. If therefore full eff'ect is to be ensured to the mural painting, the means of a disadvantageous comparison should be removed, by rendering the paintings in the windows as little obtrusive as possible, both in design and colour. They should in fact be reduced to mere patterns, principally composed of white glass ; even yellow should be sparingly introduced into them, and no other colours admitted more positive than pinks, and purples, &c. Thus the full power of painted glass cannot be developed consistently with the effective display of mural paint- ings ; but inasmuch as the latter kind of decoration seldom extensively exists in a church, a painted window, however rich, is hardly ever out of place there, and it can be introduced when grandeur in the structure, and architectural beauty of any kind, are quite impossible. " The first requisite in a painted window for a church is, of course, that it should be appropriate ; that is to say, that it should be of a character suitable to a church, and not to a dwelling-house, or secular building. A good pattern window is no doubt always preferable to a bad picture window, and in large buildings an intermixture of both pattern and picture windows is generally desirable, but I think as a general rule that patterns should not be used to the total exclusion of pictures, unless this is rendered expedient by economy, or such other circumstances as have already been adverted to. " I do not suppose that there can be any prejudice at the present day against the representation in churches of Scriptural subjects, or the portraits of saints. The established and recognised use of altar-pieces is of itself a sanction for the introduction of pictures into windows ; and to portraits of saints there seems to be as little objection. They are merely the repre- sentations of persons distinguished in Church history, who by their virtues,- or services to religion, have earned a title to respect. No one can suppose that either portraits of saints or other Scriptural subjects are introduced into a church with any other view than for the purpose of ornament, or possibly of example and instruction." Part i. p. 227-8. The study and knowledge of symbolism is so far necessary to the glass painter and architect, that it serves to guard him from absurdities, into which he will inevitably fall, if he attempts to imitate many ancient ornaments, without comprehending their meaning. But if an undue importance be attached to it, the unavoidable result will be a lowering of the standard of art ; the symbolist, the conventionalist, the ritualist, will take precedence of the true artist, and architect. The information acquired by the former may be neither useless nor unnecessary; but it must not be made to supersede the higher attainments which alone can ensure perfection. In the section which treats on the true principles of glass painting, the materials and mechanical construction of the picture are adverted to as influencing its composition. " The chief excellence of a glass painting is its translucency. A glass