In explaining the potent influence which the ceremonies and rites of the Roman Catholic Church have always exerted over the minds of men, whether believers in that faith or not, one must take into account the composite character of the appeal that is made. Exalted poetic text and alluring tone are by no means the only agencies employed. Through every avenue of approach and by means of a multitude of artistic agencies, the mind and heart of the worshipper are assailed with the one object in view to compel undivided attention to, and contemplation of, the supreme mysteries of religious faith which the Roman liturgy sets forth. The solemn magnificence of the ceremonial rites, with gorgeous vestments and dignified gesture and the grace of swinging censers, is enhanced by the grandeur of architectural proportions and decorations. Every resource of artistic genius that painter can throw upon glowing canvas or sculptor can chisel into marble forms is found on wall or niche or altar. Long before the Florentine reformers stumbled upon the principle of the union of all the arts in dramatic representation and centuries before Wagner gave such insistent reiteration to this principle, the Roman Church had given practical proof of the efficacy of the perfect union of all the arts as an aid in the expression of the religious idea. No one art existed for its own sake, nor did it measure its effectiveness by the merits and value of its own individual impressiveness; but each art borrowed something from its association with the other arts and with the time-honored forms and the hallowed memories which their universality and supposed divine nature always evoked. Thus, as has been frequently pointed out, there is much ecclesiastical art to which a largely fictitious value has been attached because of its sacred and revered association.