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Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

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Knight’s The Symbolical Language <strong>of</strong> Ancient Art and Mythology, an <strong>in</strong>quiry, first<br />

published <strong>in</strong> 1818. Pevsner could f<strong>in</strong>d no o<strong>the</strong>r word for Knight’s views on recurr<strong>in</strong>g<br />

forms <strong>in</strong> art than ‘psychoanalytical’. 186 Whe<strong>the</strong>r she knew it or not, Knight’s <strong>in</strong>troductory<br />

essay might stand as a description <strong>of</strong> what Losh achieved at Wreay, <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>tersection <strong>in</strong> a<br />

symbolic build<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> a private experience with <strong>the</strong> div<strong>in</strong>e:<br />

The religion <strong>of</strong> every person is <strong>in</strong>cluded <strong>in</strong> his ideal <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Absolute Right. Every man’s<br />

conception <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Deity is <strong>the</strong> reflection <strong>of</strong> his own <strong>in</strong>terior character… true <strong>in</strong> essence, superior to <strong>the</strong><br />

forms <strong>of</strong> worship…<strong>the</strong> heavenly pr<strong>in</strong>ciple and Supreme Order have been <strong>the</strong> constant faith <strong>of</strong> mank<strong>in</strong>d…<br />

Religions were born from <strong>the</strong> human soul, and not fabricated. In process <strong>of</strong> time <strong>the</strong>y evolved a tw<strong>of</strong>old<br />

character, <strong>the</strong> external and <strong>the</strong> spiritual. Then symbolism became <strong>the</strong> handmaid to worship; and <strong>the</strong> Deity<br />

<strong>in</strong> all his attributes was represented by every form that was conceived to possess significance. 187<br />

There follows a glossary <strong>of</strong> symbols and <strong>the</strong>ir mean<strong>in</strong>g. If Losh read it she would<br />

have know that <strong>the</strong> p<strong>in</strong>e cone and <strong>the</strong> lotus, <strong>the</strong> two most prom<strong>in</strong>ently recurr<strong>in</strong>g images<br />

<strong>in</strong>side her church, are symbolic <strong>in</strong> classical imagery not only <strong>of</strong> rebirth but <strong>of</strong> male and<br />

female respectively, ‘<strong>the</strong> exterior emblems <strong>of</strong> sex’. 188 Whe<strong>the</strong>r such sexual imagery was<br />

comprehended <strong>in</strong> her view <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> creative power <strong>of</strong> nature is not possible to know, but it<br />

is a possiblitity. What certa<strong>in</strong>ly is implicit is a view <strong>of</strong> religion as someth<strong>in</strong>g wider, older<br />

and perhaps deeper than Christianity. On <strong>the</strong> night before her fa<strong>the</strong>r’s funeral <strong>in</strong> 1814<br />

James Losh recalled that she spoke to him ‘with great candour and energy upon many<br />

most deeply <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g subjects –she seems to suffer from those doubts and anxieties<br />

which are but too common to m<strong>in</strong>ds <strong>of</strong> much sensibility and deep research’. 189 By <strong>the</strong><br />

1840s such doubts were becom<strong>in</strong>g more press<strong>in</strong>g throughout Victorian society and yet,<br />

with Darw<strong>in</strong> still to publish, it rema<strong>in</strong>ed possible and <strong>in</strong>deed common to see a div<strong>in</strong>e plan<br />

<strong>in</strong> nature that embraced both faith and those geological and scientific discoveries which<br />

so <strong>in</strong>terested and also enriched <strong>the</strong> Losh family.<br />

186<br />

Pevsner, ‘Richard Payne Knight’, p. 297.<br />

187<br />

Knight, The Symbolical Language <strong>of</strong> Ancient Art and Mythology, pp. xiii-iv.<br />

188<br />

Knight, The Symbolical Language <strong>of</strong> Ancient Art and Mythology, p.xiv.<br />

189<br />

Journal <strong>of</strong> James Losh, quoted <strong>in</strong> Kemp, Woodside, p. 119.<br />

88

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