t to be; the Directors
of the North-Western Railway declined the artist's generous offer, and
he had to get his "Cosmos" painted by degrees. On the whole, perhaps, we
should be thankful that the railway company liberated Watts from this
self-imposed task. We remember that Dante in his exile set out to write
"Il Convivio," a Banquet of so many courses that one might tremble at
the prospect of sitting down to it; the four treatises we have are
interesting, though dry as dust; but if Dante had finished his Banquet,
he might never have had time for his "Divine Comedy"; so perhaps, after
all, we shall be well content to be without Watts' "Cosmos," remembering
what we have gained thereby. Besides, the continuous and spontaneous
self-revelation of an artist or a poet is sometimes truer than a rigid
predetermined plan.

[Illustration: PLATE IV.--THOMAS CARLYLE

(At the South Kensington Museum)

This canvas was painted in 1868, and is the earlier of the two
portraits of the famous historian painted by Watts. It formed
part of the Foster Bequest. It is interesting to compare this
with the painting in the National Portrait Gallery.]

A few words from the pen of the artist, appearing by way of preface to a
book, "A Plain Handicraft," may here be quoted to indicate the strong
views Watts took on the "Condition-of-England Question." His interest in
art was not centred in painting, or sculpture, or himself, or his fellow
artists. He believed in the sacred mission of art as applied to profane
things. We see how closely he adheres to the point of view made so
famous by Ruskin. Both Watts and Ruskin, one feels, belong rather to the
days of Pericles, when everything was best in the state because the
citizens gave themselves up to it and to each other. Writing of the
necessity and utility of reviving Plain Handicrafts among the mass of
the people, the painter of "Mammon" says:

"... When the object is to vitalise and develop faculties--the
especial inheritance of the human race, but strangely dormant
in our time among the largest section of the community--the
claim becomes one that cannot be ignored. Looking at the
subject from a point of view commanding a wide horizon, it
seems to be nothing less than a social demand, rising into a
religious duty, to make every endeavour in the direction of
supplying all possible compensating consolation for the
routine of daily work,