himself "was a master of the art.") Here too, most probably, he sketched, or first gathered, his early memoranda towards his future general history of husbandry, from the earliest ages of the world to his own time; and fostered a devoted zeal for Linnæus, which produced that spirited eulogium on him, which pervades the preface to his translation of "Miscellaneous Tracts on Natural History." [102] Sir Uvedale, about fifty years ago, translated _Pausanias_ from the Greek. One may judge of the feeling with which he dwelt on the pages of this book, by what he says of that nation in vol. i. p. 65 of his Essays, where he speaks of being struck with the extreme richness of some of the windows of our cathedrals and ruined abbeys: "I hope it will not be supposed, that by admiring the picturesque circumstances of the Gothic, I mean to undervalue the symmetry and beauty of Grecian buildings: whatever comes to us from the Greeks, has an irresistible claim to our admiration; that distinguished people seized on the true points both of beauty and grandeur in all the arts, and their architecture has justly obtained the same high pre-eminence as their sculpture, poetry, and eloquence." [103] On the pomp of devotion in our ancient abbeys, Mr. R. P. Knight thus interests his readers, in the chapter "Of the Sublime and Pathetic," in the Inquiry into the principles of Taste:--"Every person who has attended the celebration of high mass, at any considerable ecclesiastical establishment, must have felt how much the splendour and magnificence of the Roman Catholic worship tends to exalt the spirit of devotion, and to inspire the soul with rapture and enthusiasm. Not only the impressive melody of the vocal and instrumental music, and the imposing solemnity of the ceremonies, but the pomp and brilliancy of the sacerdotal garments, and the rich and costly decorations of the altar, raise the character of religion, and give it an air of dignity and majesty unknown to any of the reformed churches."