t volunteer in the ranks of art, who has served a campaign
or two ever so ingloriously, has at least this good fortune of
understanding, or fancying he is able to understand, how the battle
has been fought, and how the engaged general won it. This is the
Rhinelander's most brilliant achievement--victory along the whole line.
The "Night-watch" at Amsterdam is magnificent in parts, but on the
side to the spectator's right, smoky and dim. The "Five Masters of the
Drapers" is wonderful for depth, strength, brightness, massive power.
What words are these to express a picture! to describe a description!
I once saw a moon riding in the sky serenely, attended by her
sparkling maids of honor, and a little lady said, with an air of great
satisfaction, "I MUST SKETCH IT." Ah, my dear lady, if with an H.B.,
a Bristol board, and a bit of india-rubber, you can sketch the starry
firmament on high, and the moon in her glory, I make you my compliment!
I can't sketch "The Five Drapers" with any ink or pen at present at
command--but can look with all my eyes, and be thankful to have seen
such a masterpiece.

They say he was a moody, ill-conditioned man, the old tenant of the
mill. What does he think of the "Vander Helst" which hangs opposite his
"Night-watch," and which is one of the great pictures of the world? It
is not painted by so great a man as Rembrandt; but there it is--to see
it is an event of your life. Having beheld it you have lived in the year
1648, and celebrated the treaty of Munster. You have shaken the hands
of the Dutch Guardsmen, eaten from their platters, drunk their Rhenish,
heard their jokes, as they wagged their jolly beards. The Amsterdam
Catalogue discourses thus about it:--a model catalogue: it gives you the
prices paid, the signatures of the painters, a succinct description of
the work.

"This masterpiece represents a banquet of the civic guard, which took
place on the 18th June, 1648, in time great hall of the St. Joris Doele,
on the Singel at Amsterdam, to celebrate the conclusion of the Peace
at Munster. The thirty-five figures composing the picture are all
portraits.

"'The Captain WITSE' is placed at the head of the table, and attracts
our attention first. He is dressed in black velvet, his breast covered
with a cuirass, on his head a broad-brimmed black hat with white plumes.
He is comfortably seated on a chair of black oak, with a velvet cushion,
and holds in his left hand, supported on his knee, a mag