thenceforward, as art, the
innocuous bombast of Michael Angelo, and fluent efflorescence of
Bernini. But when you become more intimately and impartially acquainted
with the history of the Reformation, you will find that, as surely and
earnestly as Memling and Giotto strove in the north and south to set
forth and exalt the Catholic faith, so surely and earnestly did Holbein
and Botticelli strive, in the north, to chastise, and, in the south, to
revive it. In what manner, I will try to-day briefly to show you.

185. I name these two men as the reforming leaders: there were many,
rank and file, who worked in alliance with Holbein; with Botticelli, two
great ones, Lippi and Perugino. But both of these had so much pleasure
in their own pictorial faculty, that they strove to keep quiet, and out
of harm's way,--involuntarily manifesting themselves sometimes, however;
and not in the wisest manner. Lippi's running away with a novice was not
likely to be understood as a step in Church reformation correspondent to
Luther's marriage.[AS] Nor have Protestant divines, even to this day,
recognized the real meaning of the reports of Perugino's 'infidelity.'
Botticelli, the pupil of the one, and the companion of the other, held
the truths they taught him through sorrow as well as joy; and he is the
greatest of the reformers, because he preached without blame; though the
least known, because he died without victory.

I had hoped to be able to lay before you some better biography of him
than the traditions of Vasari, of which I gave a short abstract some
time back in Fors Clavigera (Letter XXII.); but as yet I have only added
internal evidence to the popular story, the more important points of
which I must review briefly. It will not waste your time if I
read,--instead of merely giving you reference to,--the passages on which
I must comment.

186. "His father, Mariano Filipepi, a Florentine citizen, brought him up
with care, and caused him to be instructed in all such things as are
usually taught to children before they choose a calling. But although
the boy readily acquired whatever he wished to learn, yet was he
constantly discontented; neither would he take any pleasure in reading,
writing, or accounts, insomuch that the father, disturbed by the
eccentric habits of his son, turned him over in despair to a gossip of
his, called Botticello, who was a goldsmith, and considered a very
competent master of his art, to the intent that the