peals, till his voice sounds on my ear as I write like
a distant waterfall."

"* * * and * * * have been together on the visitation for three weeks.
They have neither broken bread nor spoken together, nor, I believe, seen
one another. What a mistake our Oxford and Cambridge apostolic
missionaries fell into when they made Christianity a stern haughty thing!
Think of St Paul with a full-blown wig, deep shovel-hat, apron, round
belly, double chin, deep cough, stern eye, rough voice, and imperious
manner, drinking port-wine, and laying down the law as to the best way of
escaping the observation of the Curates' Residence Act!" The Archdeacon
himself was not without a little vanity, however, on the subject of his
sermons, and once received a quiet hit from Constable on the subject.
Having preached an old sermon once, (which he was not aware that Constable
had heard before,) he asked him how he liked it. "Very much indeed,
Fisher," replied Constable; "_I always did like that sermon._"

Like most men of original mind, Constable had a very just and manly taste
in other matters besides painting. He read but few poets, but he read
these with understanding and hearty enjoyment. To arouse his attention, it
was necessary that they should be original and vigorous. For the mere
artistic skill or cultivated taste displayed by some of the popular poets
of the day, he had no sympathy. Of Milman, for instance, he writes: "It is
singular that I happened to speak of Milman. No doubt he is learned, _but
it as not fair to encumber literature_. The world is full enough of what
has been already done; and as in the art there is plenty of fine painting,
but very few good pictures, so in poetry there is plenty of fine writing,
and I am told his is such, and, as you say, gorgeous, _but it can be
compared. Shakspeare cannot, nor Burns, nor Claude, nor Ruysdael; and it
has taken me twenty years to find this out._" It was on this principle
that he classed together Dutch and Italian art--Claude and Ostade, Titian
and Ruysdael. For, different as their modes of execution were, they
fulfilled his prime condition of having furnished the world with something
self-consistent, independent, and original. "Every truly original
picture," he would say, "is a separate study, and governed by laws of its
own; so that what is right in one would be often literally wrong if
transferred to another."

It may be anticipated that Constable, who had no half opinions on any