ligible. For this reason
it has been thought advisable to set aside, in a great measure,
individual preferences, and all predilections for particular schools
and particular periods of Art,--to take, in short, the widest possible
range as regards examples,--and then to leave the reader, when thus
guided to the meaning of what he sees, to select, compare, admire,
according to his own discrimination, taste, and requirements. The
great difficulty has been to keep within reasonable limits. Though
the subject has a unity not found in the other volumes, it is
really boundless as regards variety and complexity. I may have been
superficial from mere superabundance of materials; sometimes mistaken
as to facts and dates; the tastes, the feelings, and the faith of my
readers may not always go along with me; but if attention and interest
have been exited--if the sphere of enjoyment in works of Art have been
enlarged and enlightened, I have done all I ever wished--all I ever
hoped, to do.

With regard to a point of infinitely greater importance, I may
be allowed to plead,--that it has been impossible to treat of the
representations of the Blessed Virgin without touching on doctrines
such as constitute the principal differences between the creeds of
Christendom. I have had to ascend most perilous heights, to dive
into terribly obscure depths. Not for worlds would I be guilty of a
scoffing allusion to any belief or any object held sacred by sincere
and earnest hearts; but neither has it been possible for me to write
in a tone of acquiescence, where I altogether differ in feeling
and opinion. On this point I shall need, and feel sure that I shall
obtain, the generous construction of readers of all persuasions.

INTRODUCTION

I. ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE EFFIGIES OF THE MADONNA.

Through all the most beautiful and precious productions of human
genius and human skill which the middle ages and the _renaissance_
have bequeathed to us, we trace, more or less developed, more or less
apparent, present in shape before us, or suggested through inevitable
associations, one prevailing idea: it is that of an impersonation in
the feminine character of beneficence, purity, and power, standing
between an offended Deity and poor, sinning, suffering humanity, and
clothed in the visible form of Mary, the Mother of our Lord.

To the Roman Catholics this idea remains an indisputable religious
truth of the highest import. Those of a different