now of what that august assembly the
House of Commons is composed, may here [pointing to Phillips's picture
behind the chair], without the trouble of asking an order, without
waiting in Westminster Hall until a seat be vacant, without passing
hours in a hot gallery listening perhaps to dull discourses in an
uninteresting debate--they may here see what kind of thing the House of
Commons is, and go back edified by the sight without being bored by dull
speeches. [Cheers and laughter.]

Now, don't, gentlemen, imagine that I am romancing when I attribute this
virtue to ocular demonstration--don't imagine that that which enters the
eye does not sometimes penetrate to the mind and feelings. I will give
you an instance to the contrary. I remember within these walls seeing
two gentlemen who evidently, from their remarks, were very good judges
of horses, looking with the greatest admiration upon the well-known
picture of Landseer, "The Horseshoeing at the Blacksmith's;" and after
they had looked at it for some time one was approaching nearer, when the
other in an agony of enthusiasm said: "For heaven's sake, don't go too
near, he will kick you." [Cheers and laughter.]

Well, gentlemen, I said that a public man must take great interest in
art, but I feel that the present Government has an apology to make to
one department of art, and that is to the sculptors; for there is an old
maxim denoting one of the high functions of art which is "_Ars est
celare artem_." Now there was a cellar in which the art of the most
distinguished sculptors was concealed to the utmost extent of the
application of that saying. We have brought them comparatively into
light; and if the sculptors will excuse us for having departed from that
sage and ancient maxim, I am sure the public will thank us for having
given them an opportunity of seeing those beautiful works of men of
which it may be said: "_Vivos ducunt de marmore vultus_." I trust,
therefore, the sculptors will excuse us for having done, not perhaps the
best they might have wished, but at least for having relieved them a
little from the darkness of that Cimmerian cellar in which their works
were hid. [Cheers.] I beg again to thank you, gentlemen, for the honor
you have done me in drinking my health. [Loud cheers.]

JOHN R. PAXTON

A SCOTCH-IRISHMAN'S VIEWS OF THE PURITAN

[Speech of Rev. John R. Paxton, D.D., at the seventy-seventh annual
dinner of the New England Society in