h splendid, was only
dawning; but his genius was in the meridian. His great work, that work
which effected a revolution in the most important provinces of natural
philosophy, had been completed, but was not yet published, and was just
about to be submitted to the consideration of the Royal Society.

It is not very easy to explain why the nation which was so far before
its neighbours in science should in art have been far behind them. Yet
such was the fact. It is true that in architecture, an art which is half
a science, an art in which none but a geometrician can excel, an art
which has no standard of grace but what is directly or indirectly
dependent on utility, an art of which the creations derive a part, at
least, of their majesty from mere bulk, our country could boast of one
truly great man, Christopher Wren; and the fire which laid London in
ruins had given him an opportunity, unprecedented in modern history, of
displaying his powers. The austere beauty of the Athenian portico,
the gloomy sublimity of the Gothic arcade, he was like almost all
his contemporaries, incapable of emulating, and perhaps incapable of
appreciating; but no man born on our side of the Alps, has imitated with
so much success the magnificence of the palacelike churches of Italy.
Even the superb Lewis has left to posterity no work which can bear a
comparison with Saint Paul's. But at the close of the reign of Charles
the Second there was not a single English painter or statuary whose name
is now remembered. This sterility is somewhat mysterious; for painters
and statuaries were by no means a despised or an ill paid class. Their
social position was at least as high as at present. Their gains, when
compared with the wealth of the nation and with the remuneration of
other descriptions of intellectual labour, were even larger than at
present. Indeed the munificent patronage which was extended to artists
drew them to our shores in multitudes. Lely, who has preserved to us
the rich curls, the full lips, and the languishing eyes of the frail
beauties celebrated by Hamilton, was a Westphalian. He had died in 1680,
having long lived splendidly, having received the honour of knighthood,
and having accumulated a good estate out of the fruits of his skill.
His noble collection of drawings and pictures was, after his decease,
exhibited by the royal permission in the Banqueting House at Whitehall,
and was sold by auction for the almost incredible sum of twen