It is true that the genius of the age contrived to combine the greatest strength with the greatest elegance; but durability was the great end.

The pious men of the Middle Ages did not erect mere shells, which, though sufficient for their own brief lives, would crumble over their posterity; but looked to the wants of future generations.

And, then, there was a reliance upon posterity which is neither felt nor warranted now.

Thus, in the minor Church of the Nativity in the lordship of Stramen, which had been designed by Father Omehr, and which had exhausted the revenues of the barony, the missionary had conceived it upon a scale to which his present means were insufficient, but to which the charity of another generation would be adequate.

This was always the case with the cathedrals.