in 
mzd Art. 
Literature 
149 
of ornamental boffes, formed by faces writhing under the attacks of 
numerous dragons, who are feizing upon the lips, eyes, and cheeks of 
their vietirns. One of thele b0H'es, which are of the thirteenth century, 
is reprefented in our cut N0. 98. A large, coarfely featured face is the 
viritim of two dragons, one of Wl1ich attacks his mouth, while the other has 
feized him by the eye. The expreflion of the Face is [trikingly horrible. 
The higher mind of the middle ages loved to fee inner meanings 
through outward forms; or, at leaft, it was a fafhion which manifeited 
itfelf moft Itrongly in the latter half of the twelfth century, to adapt 
thefe outward forms to inward meanings by comparifons and moralifa- 
tions; and under the eff'e6t of this feeling certain tigures were at times 
adopted, with a view to tome other purpofe than mere ornament, though 
this was probably an innovation upon mediaeval art. The tongue lolling 
out, taken originally, as we have feen, from the imagery of clafiic times, 
was accepted rather early in the middle ages as the emblem or fymbol of 
luxury; and, when we {ind it among the fculptured ornaments of the 
architecture efpecially of fome of the larger and more important churches, 
it implied probably an allufion to that vice_at leaft the face prefented to 
us was intended to be that of a voluptuary. Among the remarkable 
feries