their style upon the accepted examples of high art, have possibly, in consequence, failed in that discursive originality which strikes out a new and a bold career. Here, then, let us find some compensation for our admitted deficiencies. We may likewise, even among our oil pictures, find cause for reasonable satisfaction. The historic survey and comparison already made is indeed not wholly adverse to the claims of our national school. The grand picture of "Macbeth" (76), by Maclise, for example, is in manner sufficiently novel and startling to create surprise and sensation in any gallery of historic works, and whatever be its defects, the other pictures, ancient or modern, here brought together, serve rather to increase than to diminish its power and originality. Again, Wilkie in his "Rent Day" (59), Webster in "The Playground” (119), and Faed in his "School" (4), show a refinement and a delicacy in the treatment of character which give to their works a higher social position than that of the Dutch masters. It will be seen likewise that Sir Edwin Landseer is at least different from, and in some respects superior to, Paul Potter. In like manner David Roberts, in his "Interior of Seville Cathedral" (143), has certainly no rival in the other schools; and in comparison with this great work, the Dutch Neefs is without colour, and destitute of space and dimensions. Again, the bold freedom, the dash and the weight of a Stanfield wave or storm have, compared with Backhuisen, the grandeur and the swell of the Atlantic, as contrasted with the chopped-water of the Zuyder Zee. Lastly, our landscape-art, while descended, as we have seen, from the history of the past, is yet at the same time essentially national and original: national in its supreme love of nature for her own sake, both in her details and her grandeur, and original in its ability to see and to seize new aspects of truth and new forms of beauty. But whatever may be the comparative intrinsic merits of ancient and modern art, there can be little doubt as to which is most in harmony with our existent sympathies and our present mental condition. We may go to the early masters for instruction, we are drawn to the modern by enjoyment. The old masters are a history which is past; the modern, a living history which is now enacting. Even if modern art treat of past days, the subject is adapted to our present times, infused with the thoughts, coloured by the feeling, of the passing hour. We walk along a gallery of old masters as through a cloister, reverently, and in pensive meditation, as among tombs; in the modern, we talk with the living, one common life beats with strong pulse; the art of the painter, and the thoughts and ways of the outer world, with the current of passing literature, are here all in unison. Ancient art is to the multitude a closed book in a dead tongue, requiring knowledge for its reading; modern in subject, taken from the last campaign, or the popular novel, is read, understood, and enjoyed by all. We are conscious that the shortness of the time, and the limits of the space at our command, have prevented our giving to the English school that detailed examination which it merits. This we propose to reserve for a subsequent occasion. In our present paper it has been our object in a general review to give a comparative historic estimate of the leading schools, and the salient works in this truly great Exhibition. We have endeavoured to educe from each historic and national epoch that instruction which its position and our present wants seem to afford and to demand. We once again assert, that throughout Europe no one exhibition affords a like opportunity of testing each school, whether ancient and foreign, modern and domestic, by its comparative position in the world's history. In art such a test is specially required. In the organic kingdoms we have comparative anatomy; in the physical the connection of the sciences; and it is no less needful, that in like manner the connection and the comparative philosophy of art should be carefully and fully elaborated. By the comparative history of nations we establish a political philosophy; draw our conclusions as to the efficiency of the varied forms of government; and thus at length political knowledge, proverbially precarious and indefinite, can, through the experience of past success or failure, be matured to the approaching certainty of probability. By a corresponding process of inquiry, which, through this Exhibition, is now rendered feasible, the precarious uncertainty which proverbially besets all art-teachings and philosophy, may in like manner be indefinitely diminished. We have here a standard of appeal, a broad basis for our deductions; and thus not only may we build up a more complete and secure art-system, but, applying the knowledge thus matured to the wants and failings in our own living school, our practice no less than our theories will stand corrected. Thus may the inductive process of inquiry be directed to the arts, and with it will come an approaching certainty to our speculations, and a more definite and wider purpose in our practice. The critic and the artist may be thus alike instructed, and with the increase of knowledge we can promise enhanced delight. In an Exhibition like the present, knowledge is the condition to enjoyment, labour to reward; and just in proportion as the visitor is prepared to work, not to idle in vacancy, will he receive reward, and with it ennobling pleasure from this wide world of thought and beauty. MAGA'S BIRTHDAY. ÆTATIS, FIVE HUNDRED. DEAR reader of MAGA, to whom it is given Right over the head of Buchanan the sage, see, For the FIVE-HUNDREDTH time since the hour of her birth! Far back though the date of her origin be, So rose the bright virgin in armour of gold! She spoke and her words were so witching and sweet, Let's crown her with laurel,-let MAGA be Queen!" All things that were loathsome and guilty and vile, For its touch was like that of Ithuriel's spear. And Falsehood and Quackery, rampant till then, As Maga swept by in her pomp and her pride. Years passed: but no wrinkle was writ on her brow, Of masters whose words, like the dew of the night, When blew the loud trump as the signal of war, Then dread and dismay smote the Radical clan, To bid their false prophets, their Balaams, or worse, But curses, like stones when they upwards are thrown, When Pallas and Juno came down from the sky For the guerdon of beauty with Venus to vie, Like maids in their teens, though the years of the three Then long may she flourish in beauty and worth, INDEX TO VOL. LXXXI. Aberdeen ministry, the fall of the, 504. 449. Accessory Transit Company, the, 546. Actinophrys, the assimilative powers of AESTHETICS AMONG THE ALPS, 265. Affghanistan, motives of the expedition AFOOT, 434-chap. ii., 444-Part II. 265. Albert Land, 374. Algeria, the French colonisation of, 134. Alpine scenery, sources, &c. of the su- ALPS, ESTHETICS AMONG THE, 265-the, EXPLORATION-CHINA AND JAPAN, 702. Anne, Queen, Hearne on the death of, Annuals, disappearance of the, 309. Araxes, advance of Russia to the, 187. WAR IN, 135-increased prestige of Russia in, *136. Caxton, Pisistratus, What will he do Central America, the transit routes by, 546. CENTRAL ASIA, LIFE IN, 612. Chamorro, Señor, in Nicaragua, 547. 593. Chaussée, the, at Bucharest, 215. Chinese, sketches of, in San Francisco, Chinese question, feeling of the country The Cock of the Hustings, the, an election Collinson, Captain, the arctic expedition Columbus, impulse given to maritime Constantine, the Grand Duke, Sir R. Convicts, treatment of, 390. Costa-Rica, war between, and Walker, 549. Costa-Ricans, capture of the Transit Cottonopolis, a Wail from, an election Course of Time, Foster's illustrations to Cowper's Task, Foster's illustrations to, 312. Credit Mobilier of France, the, 127. Cromlech, a, 562. Cross, frequent repetition of, on sculp- CROW PLUCKED WITH MR. JOHN BULL, A, Cuba, views of the United States on, 542. Cumberland Strait discovery of, 371. Danby's Opening of the Sixth Seal, on, Dane, maritime spirit of the, in England, 366. Dante, character of the imagination of, Davis, Captain John, the voyage of, 371. E. B. H., Meleager's Lament for Helio- Egypt, tendency, of all the great powers ELECTIONS, LAYS OF THE, 631-The Cock 636. England, development of the spirit of Evangeline,the illustrated edition of,311. Exports, value of, 1817 and 1856, 384. Filibusters, the, in Nicaragua, 546. Force in nature, relations of, to power, Foreign politics, present aspect of, 125. |