early created; the second expanded so widely that it now searches
and measures the creation. And how has this been done but by bringing
greater knowledge to bear upon a wider range of experiment; by being
precise in the search after truth? If this adherence to fact, to
experiment and not theory,--to begin at the beginning and not fly to
the end,--has added so much to the knowledge of man in science; why
may it not greatly assist the moral purposes of the Arts? It cannot
be well to degrade a lesson by falsehood. Truth in every particular
ought to be the aim of the artist. Admit no untruth: let the priest's
garment be clean.

Let us now return to the Early Italian Painters. A complete
refutation of any charge that the character of their school was
neccessarily gloomy will be found in the works of Benozzo Gozzoli, as
in his 'Vineyard' where there are some grape-gatherers the most
elegant and graceful imaginable; this painter's children are the most
natural ever painted. In Ghiberti,--in Fra Angilico, (well
named),--in Masaccio,--in Ghirlandajo, and in Baccio della Porta, in
fact in nearly all the works of the painters of this school, will be
found a character of gentleness, grace, and freedom, which cannot be
surpassed by any other school, be that which it may; and it is
evident that this result must have been obtained by their peculiar
attachment to simple nature alone, their casting aside all ornament,
or rather their perfect ignorance of such,--a happy fortune none have
shared with them. To show that with all these qualifications they
have been pre-eminent in energy and dignity, let us instance the 'Air
Demons' of Orcagna, where there is a woman borne through the air by
an Evil Spirit. Her expression is the most terrible imaginable; she
grasps her bearer with desperation, looking out around her into
space, agonized with terror. There are other figures in the same
picture of men who have been cast down, and are falling through the
air: one descends with his hands tied, his chin up, and long hair
hanging from his head in a mass. One of the Evil Spirits hovering
over them has flat wings, as though they were made of plank: this
gives a most powerful character to the figure. Altogether, this
picture contains perhaps a greater amount of bold imagination and
originality of conception than any of the kind ever painted. For
sublimity there are few works which equal the 'Archangels' of Giotto,
who stand singly, holding their sce