rom an alphabet, entirely composed
in this manner, and now preserved in the British Museum; it bears no
date, but the late Mr. William Young Ottley, keeper of the prints there,
was of opinion that it was executed about the middle of the fifteenth
century. This quaint alphabet has been repeated by the artists of each
succeeding generation, with variations to adapt the letters to the
costume or habit of each era; but in this unique series we seem to see
the origin of them all.

[Illustration: Fig. 68.]

One of the most singular books ever issued from the press, was published
about the same period; it is known as the _Ars Memorandi_.[59-*] As its
title imports, it was intended to assist the memory in retaining the
contents of the Gospels in the New Testament. This is done by making the
body of the design of the emblematic figure indicative of each, either
the eagle, angel, ox, or lion; in combination with this figure are many
small groups, symbolic of the contents of the various chapters. The
copy we give (Fig. 69), from the second print devoted to St. Luke's
Gospel, will make the plan of this singular picture-book clearer. The
winged bull is spread out as a base to the group of minor emblems, upon
its head rests a funeral bier, and in front of it a pot of ointment; the
numeral 7 alludes to the chapter, the principal contents being thus
called to memory. The bier alludes to the Saviour's miraculous
restoration to life of the widow's son, whom He met carried out on a
bier as He entered the city of Nain; the ointment pot alludes to the
anointing of His feet by Mary Magdalene. The bag upon which the figure 8
is placed, indicates the fable of the sower, it is the seed-bag of the
husbandman; the boat alludes to the passage of the Lake when the Saviour
quelled the storm. The singular group of emblems in the centre of the
figure indicates--the power given to the disciples by the key; the
Saviour in his transfiguration, by the sun; and the miraculous
multiplication of the five loaves; as narrated in the 9th chapter of St.
Luke. The following chapter has its chief contents noted by the scroll
indicative of the law; the sword which wounded the traveller from
Jerusalem whom the good Samaritan aided; and the figure of Mary
commended by Jesus. No. 11 is typical of the casting out a devil whose
back is depicted broken: and No. 12, of the teaching of that chapter in
the Gospel; for here the heart is set upon a treasure-chest, an act we