giving a zest to solitude and cheating it of its loneliness--rendering
Fiesole a spot which angels might alight upon by mistake in quest of
paradise, a spot where it would be at once sweet to live and sweet to
die."--Vol. iii., pp. 151-153.

* * *

82. Our readers must recollect that the convent where Fra Giovanni first
resided is not that whose belfry tower and cypress grove crown the "top
of Fesole." The Dominican convent is situated at the bottom of the slope
of olives, distinguished only by its narrow and low spire; a cypress
avenue recedes from it towards Florence--a stony path, leading to the
ancient Badia of Fiesole, descends in front of the three-arched loggia
which protects the entrance to the church. No extended prospect is open
to it; though over the low wall, and through the sharp, thickset olive
leaves, may be seen one silver gleam of the Arno, and, at evening, the
peaks of the Carrara mountains, purple against the twilight, dark and
calm, while the fire-flies glance beneath, silent and intermittent, like
stars upon the rippling of mute, soft sea.

* * *

"It is by no means an easy task to adjust the chronology of Fra
Angelico's works; he has affixed no dates to them, and consequently,
when external evidence is wanting, we are thrown upon internal, which in
his case is unusually fallacious. It is satisfactory therefore to
possess a fixed date in 1433, the year in which he painted the great
tabernacle for the Company of Flax-merchants, now removed to the gallery
of the Uffizii. It represents the Virgin and child, with attendant
Saints, on a gold ground--very dignified and noble, although the Madonna
has not attained the exquisite spirituality of his later efforts. Round
this tabernacle as a nucleus, may be classed a number of paintings, all
of similar excellence--admirable that is to say, but not of his very
best, and in which, if I mistake not, the type of the Virgin bears
throughout a strong family resemblance."--Vol. iii., pp. 160, 161.

* * *

83. If the painter ever increased in power after this period (he was
then forty-three), we have been unable to systematize the improvement.
We much doubt whether, in his modes of execution, advance were possible.
Men whose merit lies in record of natural facts, increase in knowledge;
and men whose merit is in dexterity of hand increase in facility; but we
much doubt whether the faculty of design, or fo