coined farthings of tin, with only a small quantity of copper in the centre. The figure (still retained) of Britannia sitting on a globe, holding in her right hand an olive branch and in her left a spear and shield, first appears on the copper coinage of this reign, having been modelled, it is said, after the celebrated court beauty, Miss Stewart, afterward Duchess of Richmond. The coinage of Queen Anne was the work of Croker, an English medallist, second only to Simonds: in this department at least native artists have done honour to the country. Croker also executed a series of medals on the glorious events of that queen's reign. Of his coins the celebrated farthings are well known and of great scarcity, yet at this time of no more intrinsic value than the amount they pass for current: some of them were executed as pattern pieces, and but few issued: no doubt the whole of them are now safely lodged in the cabinets of the curious.

WOOD CARVING.

Ar this period wood-cutting shone forth in bold and beautıful relief. Grinling Gibbons is decidedly the most surprising artist, as his carvings, numerous and elaborate as they are, proclaim to this day. His delineations of foliage and flowers have never been equalled in England, and probably never surpassed by any foreign artist. The stalls in St. Paul's cathedral are by him, which, as a large mass, excite the admiration of foreignThere are a few more splendid specimens of pulpits and sounding boards over them, and some screens, by him, in which the stems of the flowers are so delicately cut as,

ers.

"Like sister flowers of one sweet shade,
With the same breeze they bend."

Sir Robert Walpole, speaking of the altar-piece of St. Mary's Abchurch, says "there is no instance before him of any other artist who gave to wood the airy lightness of flowers." These carvings were originally painted by Sir James Thornhill, after nature they are at this time as fresh and beautiful as ever, though they have been cut more than a century. They are, in common with the rest of the screen, by him and some of his equally talented pupils, of the colour of oak.

There are many specimens of Gibbons's unrivalled chisel in wood at Windsor Castle, Burleigh House, and Chatsworth. He also cut the marble statue of Charles II., that used to occupy the centre of the late Royal Exchange.

The art of etching commenced about the time of Albert Durer, an artist of universal talent. There is an etching of Christ praying on the mount, of the date of 1515, and a landscape by Durer, 1518.

The art of mezzotinto, in which the English have greatly excelled, commenced about 1643. In the British museum there is a mezzotinto portrait of the Princess Amelia Elizabeth of that date, by Louis Count Von Siegen.

Aquatinta was invented by a German named Le Prince, born at Mentz in 1723. This style is capable of the greatest beauties, as the plates in the "Hunchback," by W. Daniel, and also by others, will testify.

Francis Vivans was the father of English landscape engraving.

One of the earliest books with copper-plates was Sir John Harrington's translation of "Orlando's Furioso," in 1690.

I cannot pass over this interesting subject without availing myself of a beautiful passage from "The Parthenon." It will be a sort of preface to the orders issued by the vandal parliament. "Religious worship," says this sprightly writer, "seems everywhere to have furnished the first impulse to the arts of sculpture and painting, as heroic deeds and warlike achievements appear to have done to poetry; was likewise the source of their revival in Europe. The tangible form of sculpture, which has always been of earlier growth than painting, while it reduced the mysteries of religion to a distinct and permanent idea, at the same time flattered the vanity of men by likening to themselves the objects of their adoration. But when the treasures of the palette began to extend the narrow limits of bare design, when the eye was seen beaming with liquid lustre, the lips to be tinged with the crimson of nature, and the hair to descend in glossy ringlets from the brow, it is easy to conceive how much admiration of the newly discovered art must have increased attachment to the objects of its representation. The ministers of religion have never been slow to perceive the advantages which might arise from this combination of feelings, and have never failed to avail themselves of it whenever they have possessed the power. In process of time the arts which at first were devoted to the worship of the gods, came also to be employed in celebrating the actions of men, and found their encouragement in the policy of states or the luxury of individuals. It is manifestly to these principles, and not to the influence of climate or the spirit of liberty, as Winkelman absurdly maintains, that the establishment of the fine arts in any country is to be attributed. The fact is, the success of the fine arts will always keep pace with their encouragement; and

it is equally certain that their encouragement depends more on circumstances of a fortuitous nature than on fixed principle of local or political influences. Public wealth and a taste for luxury are the only indispensable conditions in the advancement of the arts; and these may exist in a state of political slavery as well as of political wisdom. It may be true that a system of encouragement of the fine arts, founded not on the whim of a prince or the fashion of a court, but on the sound, moral, and political principles of a free and enlightened people, would prove to be the most effective as well as the most permanent. But the page of history furnishes us with no example of so desirable a consummation. Possibly in future ages, when the narrow prejudices which still oppose improvement shall have passed away, such a system may prevail. The historian who shall have to record so brilliant an epoch in the history of human civilization, may then look back to trace the fitful glimmerings of former arts, and grieve to find how imperfectly its true value was understood even at those periods which presented examples of the nearest approach toward rational freedom."

In the year 1645 came forth the following orders from the parliament:

Ordered, That all such pictures and statues there (at Whitehall) as are without any superstition, shall be forthwith sold for the benefit of Ireland and the north.

Ordered, That all such pictures there as have the representation of the second person in the Trinity upon them, shall be forthwith burnt.

Ordered, That all such pictures there as have the representation of the Virgin Mary upon them, shall be forthwith burnt. Well might Charles himself, a few weeks before his death, write,

"The corner-stone's misplaced by every paviour,
With such a bloody method and behaviour
Their ancestors did crucifie our Saviour."

The parliamentary leaders adopted this scheme from the same infamous motives that actuated a similar set at the time of "the wife-killer," viz., to get a chance of embezzling them and adding them to their own collections. Lambert was an artist. Fairfax was an enthusiast and an antiquarian. Cromwell* secured the cartoons for the price of £300; yet many

* The Edinborough Review states that this extraordinary man told Lely to "paint me as I am; if you leave out the scars and wrinkles, I will not pay you a shilling." Even in such trifles the protector showed both his good sense and magnanimity. He did not wish all that was characteristic in his countenance to be lost in the vain attempt to give him the regular features

pictures were lost to the country, and now embellish some of the foreign galleries.

These misguided men could not make a change in politics without venting their inglorious spite upon these choice works of art. What could burning of pictures have to do with any necessary alteration that was to be made in restraining, within due bounds, the kingly prerogative? This, and other questions might be asked, but will never be answered, because no satisfactory answer can be given.

However, in the language of Shelley,

-I thank thee. Thou hast given

A boon which I will not resign, and taught
A lesson not to be unlearned. I know
The past, and thence I will essay to glean
A warning for the future, so that man
May profit by his errors, and derive
Experience from his folly."

"There is no part of history so generally useful as that which relates to the progress of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reason, the successive advances of science, the vicissitudes of learning and ignorance, which are the lights and darkness of thinking beings, the extinctions and resuscitations of the arts, and the revolutions of the intellectual world. accounts of battles and invasions are peculiarly the business of princes, the useful or elegant arts are not to be neglected: those who have states to govern have also understandings to cultivate.”*

If

There are, unfortunately, some few in every society who cannot or do not understand the moral and the beauty of the symbolic arts. These deserve our warmest pity. On this subject I beg leave to present them with a few extracts from Digby's "Mores Catholici," of which "every line is a lesson, every page a history."

"Man must have pleasure; if he find it not in the house of God, he will seek it in the false joys of the world."

"The artists in mosaics and paintings knew the necessity of making art symbolic rather than imitative; that proves the inconsistency of the moderns, who would admire and preserve the monument of Catholic genius, but destroy the idea which produced it."

and smooth, blooming cheeks of James I. He was content that his face should go forth marked with all the blemishes that had been put on by time, by war, by sleepless nights, by anxiety, and perhaps by remorse; but with valour, policy, authority, and public cares written in all its princely lines and natural hues. If men truly great knew their own interests, it is thus that they would wish their minds to be portrayed. * Johnson.

"The objectors to paintings and images may as well object to God for having made the lights of Heaven so resplendent and the herbs so beautiful and odoriferous."

"The Creator sees man in making beautiful things to adore him with, only imitating his own works."

"The first essential qualification for understanding symbolic language is a revering spirit."

"From things insensible alone ye learn

That which, digested rightly, after turns
To intellectual."

DANTE.

"What is mysticism must be mystically reviewed. Religion, love, nature, state-everything in the church is full of divine signification and mystery. The divine offices correspond to that sentiment of beauty under the religious feelings which, in the unity of our life of perception, divides itself into the epic of inspiration, the dramatic of resignation, and the lyric of devotion."

Thus says another elegant writer: "The ancient artists were attentive to emblems and attributes, and whatever could mark or identify their subject."* But the men, or rather the unimaginative monsters of that day, were bent on destruction, and, therefore, resolved,

66

-With fire, sword, and desolation,

To make a thorough godly reformation;" HUDibras.

and thus "were things destroyed-were hurled to things unborn."

In their blind rage for destruction, they overlooked the common principles of this delightful art. Hear what a modern writer advises his pupil :

"He who from nature takes a view,

Must copy and improve it too;

He ne'er will as an artist shine,

Who copies nature line by line." DR. SYNTAX.

A painting or statue must be something more than mere outline, to call up the passions of the human heart. It is, therefore, the part of genius to add those embellishments which are calculated to raise the noblest emotions of the soul.

As "experience is a great teacher, it is a professor that neither reasons nor debates, but carries such conviction and proof that no one but an imbecile or a madman disputes." "Oh, ye of little faith," go to Thebes, a city built four thousand years past, and "there learn by time, travel, and study." You will find a piece of sculpture representing a judge, with a picture on

* Forsyth.