impossible, and in this very failure, warned every succeeding age of the
vanity of the attempt which his transcendent genius was unable to
effect. It is this fundamental error that destroys the effect, even of
his finest pieces; it is this, combined with the unapproachable nature
of the presence which it reveals, that has rendered the Transfiguration
itself a chaos of genius rather than a model of ideal beauty; nor will
it, we hope, be deemed a presumptuous excess, if we venture to express
our sentiments in regard to this great author, since it is from his own
works alone that we have derived the means of appreciating his
imperfections.

It is in his smaller pieces that the genuine character of Raphael's
paintings is to be seen--in the figure of St Michael subduing the demon;
in the beautiful tenderness of the Virgin and Child; in the unbroken
harmony of the Holy Family; in the wildness and piety of the infant St
John;--scenes, in which all the objects of the picture combine for the
preservation of one uniform character, and where the native fineness of
his mind appears undisturbed by the display of temporary passion, or the
painful distraction of varied suffering.

There are no pictures of the English school in the Louvre, for the arms
of France never prevailed in our island. From the splendid character,
however, which it early assumed under the distinguished guidance of Sir
Joshua Reynolds, and from the high and philosophical principles which he
at first laid down for the government of the art, there is every reason
to believe that it ultimately will rival the celebrity of foreign
genius; And it is in this view that the continuance of the gallery of
the Louvre was principally to be wished by the English nation--that the
English artists might possess, so near their own country, so great a
school for composition and design; that the imperfections of foreign
schools might enlighten the views of English genius; and that the
conquests of the French arms, by transferring the remains of ancient
taste to these northern shores, might give greater facilities to the
progress of our art, than can exist when they are restored to their
legitimate possessors.

The great object, then, of all the modern schools of historical
painting, seems to have been, the delineation of an _affecting scene_ or
_interesting occurrence_; they have endeavoured to tell a story by the
variety of incidents in a single picture; and seized, for the mos