shade, and anatomy, never before dreamed of.

3. The sense of error and iniquity in the theological teaching of the
Christian Church, felt by the highest intellects of the time, and
necessarily rendering the formerly submissive religious art impossible.

To-day, then, our task is to examine the peculiar characters of the
Design of the Northern Schools of Engraving, as affected by these great
influences.

143. I have not often, however, used the word 'design,' and must clearly
define the sense in which I now use it. It is vaguely used in common
art-parlance; often as if it meant merely the drawing of a picture, as
distinct from its color; and in other still more inaccurate ways. The
accurate and proper sense, underlying all these, I must endeavor to make
clear to you.

'Design' properly signifies that power in any art-work which has a
purpose other than of imitation, and which is 'designed,' composed, or
separated to that end. It implies the rejection of some things, and the
insistence upon others, with a given object.[AG]

Let us take progressive instances. Here is a group of prettily dressed
peasant children, charmingly painted by a very able modern artist--not
absolutely without design, for he really wishes to show you how pretty
peasant children can be, (and, in so far, is wiser and kinder than
Murillo, who likes to show how ugly they can be); also, his group is
agreeably arranged, and its component children carefully chosen.
Nevertheless, any summer's day, near any country village, you may come
upon twenty groups in an hour as pretty as this; and may see--if you
have eyes--children in them twenty times prettier than these. A
photograph, if it could render them perfectly, and in color, would far
excel the charm of this painting; for in it, good and clever as it is,
there is nothing supernatural, and much that is subnatural.

144. Beside this group of, in every sense of the word, 'artless' little
country girls, I will now set one--in the best sense of the
word--'artful' little country girl,--a sketch by Gainsborough.

You never saw her like before. Never will again, now that Gainsborough
is dead. No photography,--no science,--no industry, will touch or reach
for an instant this _super_-naturalness. You will look vainly through
the summer fields for such a child. "Nor up the lawn, nor by the wood,"
is she. Whence do you think this marvelous charm has come? Alas! if we
knew, would not we all be Gainsboroughs? Th